


Happiness

by Pious_Mage



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Gold & Silver & Crystal | Pokemon Gold Silver Crystal Versions
Genre: Magical Realism, Original Character(s), Other, Political, Realistic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2019-06-13 02:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 42,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15354219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pious_Mage/pseuds/Pious_Mage
Summary: Set twenty years after the events of GSC, a lone girl travels the Johto region in search of one thing. Happiness. Realistic AU, Darker AU.





	1. Prologue

_"Champion Ethan Goldberg was found dead this morning at six-forty-two AM Cerulean time."_

This was the line that would change my life forever. I was born the only child of a Mrs. John and Cathy Graham in the slums of Cherrygrove city. My mum was a heroin addict who beat me regularly and sold herself off to pay for her next fix. My father was a belligerent drunk who worked construction when he could get off his lazy ass and would never ever stick up for me, too tired of my mothers shit and too scared of being beaten himself.

By the time I was six years old, I had run away twice, both times I returned home after an hour as I was hungry and being a six-year-old I realistically couldn't feed myself, my parents didn't even realize I was gone. By the time I was eight, I was as obsessed with pokemon battles as any kid my age, however, while other kids studied how cool a Charizard was or how pretty a Butterfree was. I was taking notes how much both were damaged by a move names stealth rock and how completely unviable it made them in the higher up tournaments.

When I was nine years old I was already working odd jobs around town, I didn't go to school because my parents didn't care and I'd rather spend the time on things I wanted to do. So instead, I'd help older lady's get there purloins out of trees. I'd mow peoples lawns, sure it'd only earn me about five to ten dollars a job, but I was saving up to two hundred so I could obtain a pokeball. I had a plethora of ideas on what to use it on, as I often went to the library to study up on what lived around here. However, before I turned ten and was able to obtain a trainers license, something happened.

Champion Goldberg was able to pass a bill that he'd been trying to get passed for the better part of twenty years. A bill that raised the age limit to obtain a trainers license for eleven.

"Not as high as I wanted it but it's progress." The champion was quoted and thus my dreams of leaving my shitty home were extended to two years instead of one and over the next four years he was able to raise it up to fourteen after statistics showed the declining rate in fatalities in young trainers.

Meanwhile, I continued to study and rule out species nearby that would not be up to par. I thought about a Magikarp but they take to long to raise especially as your starter pokemon, the surrounding Caterpie, Weedle and Ledyba families were way to weak. Kingler was too slow outside of water, Octillery was intelligent and strong but hesitant and preferred to use there ink to run not fight. Pidgeots were fast durable decently strong, good starters but, way too easy to account and strategize for as pretty much everyone had one and they were dumb as a brick. I just wanted something powerful, fast, intelligent, durable and rare, was that so hard to ask for?

So I turned my view elsewhere, to the nocturnal, after all, most trainers train, and catch during the day and aren't prepared for the nocturnal. There I did my research and found out the local area's nocturnal pokemon include, Hoot-hoot, Spinarak, Teddiursa, and Murkrow. Noctowl are useful as they have limited psionic energy but they were relatively weak ambush predators and required the cover of darkness to really be useful so they were out. Spinarak work well in teams, have limited psionic and spiritual energy, are fast and are good ambush predators, but they work in hivemind, separated from that they don't have much thought and are weak to many many common types in the higher tiers, including fire, flying, rock and the ever-present psychic. Teddiursa and Ursaring were strong pokemon, a little on the slow side but powerhouses who with the right moves and team set could swing through other teams like a wrecking ball. It was near perfect… Except for the fact that Teddiursa was always near there mother until they evolved, and to steal a cub from an Ursaring was among the most dangerous things a person could do let alone a thirteen-year-old girl. Lastly, there was Murkrow, Honchkrow was great team workers, usually flying in murders between thirty and fifty They had decent speed, were extremely powerful, could take at least one hit and hit back hard, excellent typing giving it two immunities to two of the most powerful types, Ground and Psychic, and were too intelligent to be caught often. So a Murkrow it was.

I had already earned enough money for two pokeballs at this point but to do the plan I had, I would only have enough money for one. However, my plan was the only shot I'd have at catching these elusive dark type birds. So every night I'd sneak out of my house and walk over to the local Kalosian Fried Torchick. There I'd Order three huge bowls of fries and a little bit of chicken for myself. Then I'd head to a nearby park where plenty of Murkrow and Bellsprout smokers would hang out. There I'd wait at the edge of a flock throwing fries to the Murkrow in front of me. At first they spooked and ran but eventually, they grew to recognize me and my tasty treats. After about three weeks, they began flying over to me and I could feed them by hand and pet them. The local park-goers began referring to me as the Murkrow girl or MG for short, Funny enough it worked out perfectly as those were my initials. I even was able to make a little money by offering to help people pet the Murkrow but that was just a nice side effect of my real plan; To tame one of these beasts for the day that I could finally leave on my journey.

Every Time I saw my new feathered friends I tested and observed them. I observed which ones were the most aggressive, I didn't want one that was too much of an alpha and would fight me, I tested which ones were the fastest, something I would need as speed was one of there species more lacking aspects. I manipulated them to fight so I could see which ones would strike the hardest and which ones could take the most damage and I set up traps, and puzzles to test their wits in which often times I could make more money by betting on the outcomes with my newfound fans.

After another six weeks of observing and testing, I settled on a small female Murkrow. She was young and timid, taking the longest to trust me out of any of them to trust me and even then never let me pet her or came close. However she was very fast, often being the first to thrown food, when I manipulated a fight between her and a larger male, she flew away and didn't come back for a week and even then staying even further away then before from me, almost as if she suspected it was me who organized it. When it came to the puzzles, she was usually second to the food, mainly because I couldn't organize anything super complex being a thirteen year old with limited access to tools, and the bird that would reach first usually would just smash his way to the food. However, when I asked them to a task or idea instead of a physical puzzle she would always solve it and get her food. So while she was not a skilled battler, she was the smartest and the fastest of her murder and for that I wanted her.

The problem was the age limit I still had at least another thirty-four weeks before I could legally train a pokemon, so for the next week I continued my exercises, now having made a choice, I made more and more bets, hoping to raise money for my journey. At the end of that week though is when the message that would change my life was announced. That the champion was dead. It sucked too as despite wanting to leave on a journey so young I liked the champion. He was young, well at least compared to most champions. He loved his nation, his beliefs were well founded and he brought the mortality rate of trainers down way more, due to the introduction of free health care for trainers and trainer pokemon, deprivatization of Pokemarts and of course the increase in age for pokemon trainers. Unfortunately though none of that mattered as he was dead and thanks to no one ever beating Ethan, the previous champion Lance was reinstated as the leader of the Kanjo region. His first act of business? Passing a bill that lowered the age of training back down to ten years old.

I was ecstatic at this news. It meant I could apply for my trainers permit and even though, I was poor, had little supplies and didn't actually own a pokemon yet, I apply as soon as I possibly could, or at least I tried… For in order for anyone below the age of sixteen to apply and obtain there trainers license they needed parental permission, so I took a form home and began to think of ways to trick my parents into signing the thing, as I knew they sure as hell wouldn't sign it if they actually knew what it was. My mum needed her punching bag after all and my dad needed someone else for my mum to bitch at. So I settled on the simplest solution. I waited until dinner that night and ate at home. After being yelled at for a while for not finding my own food and for draining our families resources and for being pathetic, we sat down and ate dinner in silence. Every few minutes I'd offer to fill my parent's glasses of wine which made the two lousy drunks actually happy with me for once. By the time we finished dinner, they had finished a bottle each and we're halfway done there third. It was then that I actually sprang the question.

"Mum, Dad?" I asked as innocently as I possibly could while they both looked aghast that I dared to speak in a sentence other than offering them more wine. "Um… There's a field trip at school coming up and um… I need you guys to sign the permission form." I lied trying to sound as normal as innocent as possible despite my heart racing as fast as a rapidash.

"Will it cost anything?" My dad slurred, the worry and tiredness evident in his voice.

"N-no." I stammered out praying they wouldn't catch me lying or I'd be in for it.

"What kinda field trip doesn't cost any money?" My mom asked outraged.

"We're just going to the ruins of Alph.:" I muttered the lie I had been practicing for the last twelve hours. "The school is gonna pay for it."

"On our tax dollars? Arceus this country is going to ruins." My mum said, her temper flaring hotly and I had to suppress a laugh, my parents never paid taxes,

"S-so can you sign it," I asked in a near whisper.

"Yeah sure, bring it here." My father said yawning voice clear of any and all emotion. I nearly jumped for joy. I took the piece of paper out of my pocket alongside a pen I had snagged and placed it on the table. This was the most delicate part of it all, I hoped he was drunk enough to not actually read the form. Unfortunately for me, he began muttering it aloud to himself. "By signing this paper you hereby agree to the league's terms and give permission for your child to-" He said stopping reading when he saw what it actually said, his eyes going wide. He glanced up at my mum, down at the paper, at me, back down at the paper and then up at my mum again who was filling up yet another glass of wine.

"What're ya laking at me for." My mom heavily slurred, the alcohol finally hitting her. "Whassit say?"

"Oh, just that there going by teleportation is all." My dad said looking up at me and flashing me a quick wink before signing it. I couldn't believe it, he was actually letting me go off of his own consciousness. I hugged him and ran upstairs to my room before my mum could start going off about the expensiveness of teleportation, I prepared myself to get up early as I wanted to go in and test for my license as soon as I could, so I could leave as soon as possible. I began packing my backpack full of clothes, the cash I had accumulated so far and whatever snacks I had been able to sneak upstairs over the past couple of weeks. It was while doing this that I heard a knock on my door and jumped quickly throwing my bag underneath my bed. My father entered through the door and I began to be very nervous, this was it. He was gonna tell me off and I wouldn't be able to leave an-

"Here, take this." He said leaning down and handing me a large wad of cash rubber banded together. "But don't tell your mother." He said smiling softly.

"You-you're not mad," I whispered, eyes wide at the giant sum of money he was handing me.

"Mad, of course, I'm not mad." He said smiling widely. "I knew you'd wanna do this one day, after all, who wants to stick around with that witch of women." He shot nastily at my mum.

"But this-this is a lot of money."

"A lot of money you're gonna need on your journey." He said shoving it into my hands. "I've been saving it up for a long time ya know? I mean, I remember when I started my journey I wished I had this much."

"You were a trainer?" I asked astonished to hear the news.

"Of course I was a lousy one at that too. Could never make it past four badges though." He said his eyes full of nostalgia reminiscing on the past.

"Well, what happened?" I asked curious to learn more about this side of my father.

"I met your mother." He said smiling. "She was quite different back then ya know? Just as feisty but in a different way. It was love at first sight for me. She was a hell of a trainer but one day her starter, a Pillowswine was killed in a battle against leader Chuck. She snapped after that, started having mood swings, getting aggressive. I stayed by her, I was in love after all. She got pregnant and had you, started having worse mood swings, got into the hard stuff she was into now… I had to sell our remaining pokemon to pay for her addictions, and well as you're aware my own too. Now I stick with her out of fear that she'll try and kill you, or she'll say that I beat her in a drunken rage and if I'm being honest in hope that the old her will shine through." He said sadly, at this point lost in his own memories.

"Thank you, daddy," I said hugging him, sniffing and for the first time in a very long time actually crying.

"Anything for you MG." He said pulling away and winking at me.

"You know about that?" I asked embarrassedly.

"Of course I do." He said laughing. "You think I don't ever watch the news, or where you're going at nights? You're your mother's daughter, and you've sure got her talent with pokemon." He said proudly and my eyes were watering. For the first time in my life, I was gonna miss something at home. "Now you better get some sleep, you got a long day ahead of yourself tomorrow, and I know you'll wanna leave straight away. You are your mother's daughter, after all, he said a twinkle in his eye.

"I love you, daddy," I said hugging him again then crawling into bed, for the first time since I was young he tucked me in.

As I fell asleep I felt him kiss my forehead and whisper "I love you too little one." Those were the last words I ever heard him speak. He and my mother were found dead three days after I left for my journey, my mother smothered with a pillow in her sleep and my father beside her an empty bottle of pills and a picture of him and my mum smiling widely with me as a baby in a carriage on his bedside table.

In the end, he had found what we all sought, he had found happiness.


	2. You're gonna go far kid

_You're gonna go far kid_

* * *

I woke up around five AM the next morning. I snuck out of bed as quietly as I could and crept out my door and down the stairs. I stopped in the kitchen and grabbed a couple of granola bars for a quick and small breakfast. I could eat a serious meal later with the money my dad had given me the night before. I turned off the alarm to our front door as I had learned long ago to do and then exited my home closing the door as quietly as possible. I turned around and looked at the house for what I hoped would be the last time, and then I left.

By now I had the way to the league building memorized, first take a right down Front Street, walk two blocks down, take another right at James Avenue, walk another seven blocks that way, turn left down Jessie Avenue and the building was only a few meters ahead. I had made the trip dozens of times before and I knew it'd take about an hour to get there at a casual pace, which was all good since the building didn't open until six AM anyways. So I set off, munching on one of my granola bars along the way.

I was thankful that it was still just the beginning of January and that it was still dark outside so early, if one of my mothers "friends" as she called them spotted me, well that was it, my journey's over. Not only that but that it would get dark earlier, allowing me to catch my Murkrow earlier and therefore set off earlier. I knew I would have to travel for a bit at night tonight if I wanted to get far away enough from town to be safe. It would be more dangerous but that idea altogether excited me, I was always really competitive and liked a good challenge and my first one would be conquering the night.

I arrived at the league building at around sixish with no real snags other than stopping and saying hi to Mrs. Birkovich. A nice old lady from Kalos who ran a local bakery and always snuck me pastries, saying "Eat up, you is much too skinny."

I was greeted by a young receptionist, who took my parental consent notice and told me the testing room was two doors down on my left and to take a seat outside and wait for my name to be called. When I got there I found three people waiting ahead of me. One was a young excited boy with a nervous twitch, another was a girl about my age with a heavily gothic inspired look and one was a lady that looked in her mid-thirties wearing a pretty green and floral dress. I took my seat next to the fidgeting boy.

"Hi! My names Connor what's yours?" He immediately began sticking his hand out at me. I did not know what to do. I was not a social kid at all, mainly because I never went to school, preferring to spend my time wandering around town instead and dedicating myself to the lifestyle I wanted to do rather than just sit and learn things I could learn with a simple Goodra search on the web. So with a sigh instead looked at the boy's hand, and then switched seats to beside the gothic looking girl. She was not too enthused about it but I kept my mouth shut and I guess that helped, the boy, on the other hand, looked dejected and muttered to himself.

Eventually one by one, they all took there turns, the boy and the gothic girls passed, the women failed and then it was my turn and I was more nervous than I had ever been in my entire life. I walked in and there was the man sitting down at the table, I took my seat across from him.

"Hello I'm Mr. Allacord, I'll be your league examiner." He said monotonically. "In front of you is a piece of paper, please fill it out within the league-mandated time of one hundred and twenty minutes." He droned on unenthusiastically. "If you fail to answer all the questions you may still pass if you score high enough on the other questions. When I start the timer the examination will begin." He said gesturing to the clock before him, I grabbed the testing paper and two number two pencils and got ready. "You may begin your examination." He said and I started, filling out my name as fast as I could.

Q1. Explain the various threat levels for pokemon and give at least two examples for each threat group.

Oh, this was easy.

"The various threat levels are there to measure how dangerous a pokemon is to society. There are five core threat levels. Minor, Major. Expert, Legend, and Mythic.

Minor threats include most first forms of pokemon or anything that would have a hard time killing you, things like the Caterpie, Rattata or Pidgey.

Major threats were things that were relatively easy to manage but at the same time could do some real damage if let loose. This was things like Rhyhorn or Beedrill, deadly but still manageable.

Expert level threats were things that took multiple experienced trainers to take down and could do serious damage if let loose. Things like Charizard or Salamence.

Legendary threats were the worst of the worst, if let loose they could destroy entire cities or ecosystems by themselves and took league organized teams, Gym leaders or even the Elite four to deal with. These were pokemon that had horrible legends told about them. Things like Gyarados, Snorlax or Tyranitar. They were true Monsters.

Then there Mythic, which people debate is even a real threat level. These are Mythical, supposed gods of these lands. Things like Moltres, Suicune or most famous of them all Arceus. If you see one of these you run, as fast and as far as you can because chances are, you're already dead."

Q2. What are things trainers can do in case of a pokemon related emergency?

"Well, that really depends on the emergency, how long the trainers have been training and/or the number of badges the trainer has.

For example, a beginner trainer with one or two badges could not handle a major or expert level situation. However, instead, they could help with helping evacuate nontrainers and noncommittee's, help set up a medical area and then heal the stronger and more experienced trainers pokemon and ultimately set up a support area or perimeter."

Q3. What are the big jobs that you can go into during or after completing the league circuit?

"Competitive battler, Ranger corps, Political/League official, Breeder or Researcher. However to go into more detail.

A competitive battler is one you can only go into after eight or more badges, sure there are amateur tourneys but it's the eight badgers that really make the money. In competitive battling, there are high stakes high-pressure tournaments. In which pokemon often die, however, these are the big time celebrities, everybody and anyone who follows anything to do with pokemon know these peoples names. And often time winning just one major tournament will have you financially set for life.

The Ranger corps is the military, you can join as early as two badges but most people join between four and eight. These are the first line of defense against major and expert level threats, first to respond on the scene in case of national emergencies. They are our police force and often times the only thing separating the wild and ourselves. And of course the first boots on the ground in any sort of war, much like the war unification war about thirty years back, that unified Kanto and Johto into one government. Within them, there is multiple tiers, branches, and specialization but everyone starts out in the basic boot camp. And the basic troops. Only when you prove yourself do you go into a specialization.

Political/League officials are league winners. Yup, they've beaten all eight gyms and beaten the entire elite four and champion. Power is everything and when you're the most powerful trainer around, you make the rules, that is unless you step down, or ask for a simpler and smaller area. This is the elite four, the gym leaders, the strongest of the strong, the people who can defeat expert level threats single-handedly, their job is to protect and serve there country and to pass laws that will make there own nation better. Eight gym leaders have the power of one elite, all sixteen gym leaders two elites. Four elite votes are equal to a champions vote and there must be a majority to pass a bill. So if ya wanna go into politics. The exception being that you can become a gym leader if you have a minimum of four badges and study underneath a gym leader for a minimum of two years, you can be chosen instead to lead.

A pokemon breeder requires at least four badges, but most successful breeders will have eight. They breed and sell pokemon to all experience levels of trainers and all kinds of trainers and it's a great way to make a living, especially if you own your own breeding ranch or work at one that gives commission. However, making two Snorlax or Tyranitar breed when they don't want to is very risky, so you better have some highly trained pokemon to defend you.

Last is a researcher which surprisingly requires no badges. However, it's highly recommended you get at least a couple because most of the time you will be doing field research in places where there is fire-breathing lizards or giant Krookodiles and if you get two close without a strong pokemon, well to put it simply you're dead."

Similar questions continued onwards for the next twenty or so questions and altogether it took me about two and a half hours to complete my test. When I handed it in I felt very confident in myself, I had been studying and looking stuff up online for the better part of the last three years after all. However, it took another three hours until my test was marked and finished and four those three hours I was in a steady panic. thinking that it couldn't take that long unless I for sure failed. However, eventually they called me by my name and I learned that I passed alongside the goth girl and Connor the twitchy boy. Us three were escorted into a separate room where Mr. Allacord was waiting with a smile on his face.

"Well, it seems you three passed your league-mandated test. Now we need to get into the real business." He said strictly. "These," He said gesturing towards some electronic devices on the counter. "Are your standard pokedexes. They will be your lifeline on your journey. They have an encyclopedic knowledge of all known pokemon in the world, a tracking system in case you are not seen or in contact for a long time and work as a phone and have internet access. Whatever you do, do not lose them, they are expensive to replace and if you're staying out in the wild for longer than a week, make sure to contact someone or a league pokecenter for how long you plan on staying. Otherwise, you may end up with a squad of Rangers looking for you when you don't need it and not helping someone who does." He explained and we all nodded vigorously.

"Remember that if the league calls upon you in aid, you must respond to the summons, if you do not have a good enough reason as to why you missed the summon, you will be fined and possibly suspended if you continue to ignore a summons. Lastly and unfortunately we do not have the same funding as large cities like Goldenrod nor labs like Pallet or Newbark so you will have to provide yourself with your own starter pokemon. That is all, you may leave." We all thanked him and turned to leave. "Ms, Gertrude could you stay behind for a word?" I swore silently and turned around.

"Ms. Gertrude I'd like to talk to you about your test results." He said and I swallowed nervously.

"What did I do wrong?" I asked nervously.

"That's just the thing, Ms. Gertrude, you did nothing wrong. You scored with a test result of Ninety-Seven percent. Something Ms. Gertrude only did three times in the past century, two of which were by trainers Red and Blue, who were arguably the two smartest trainers of the century." He said appraisingly and I hide to hide my face so he would not see my blush. "The league would like to congratulate you by offering you a scholarship."

"What kind of Scholarship?" I asked warily.

"We will upgrade your pokedex to that of a researcher license level and provide you with a league provided started pokemon. Something that we normally don't do around here." He stated firmly.

"And the catch is?" I asked uncertainly.

"Ah, I knew you'd get that." He said the first smile I'd seen on him appear. "The only catch is that you catch and send as many pokemon as possible to league-mandated research centers, that and you complete the first three gyms within your first year of journeying."

"Three gyms in one year?" I asked loudly.

"Yes, after that there yours to keep but, Champion Goldberg, Red, and Blue all passed this within there the first year, and Goldberg barely scraped a pass on his league-mandated test." He explained and I began to think about it. A league starter most likely from a high-class breeder with good genetics would help me out in my goal greatly and the extended pokedex abilities and accessibility would help my journey.

"Alright, I'll do it." I decided firmly.

"It's settled then, now would you follow me?" He said turning around and walking to a computer that was all pre-set up. "Now just insert your pokedex in there." He said and I followed his instructions and after a few minutes of it downloading some new programs, it was solved. "Good, now as for your starter, we knew someone like you would want something with diversity, something that you could mold into your own." He said smiling widely gesturing to a pokeball on the desk in front of us.

"What is it?" I asked excitedly, dozens of options running through my head.

"Why don't you open it and see yourself?" He said and I shot him a look. I picked up the ball feeling it in my hands, it felt right. Then I clicked the release button, which kicked back at me causing me to accidentally drop the ball and Mr. Allacord to chuckle. Out emerged a cute brown fox and I smiled broadly.

"An Eevee?" I asked turning towards excitedly.

"Yes, mam, especially bread from Unova, so it has skills only Unovan or Eevee's bred from Unova are said to possess." He replied and my smile grew wider. This was the perfect pokemon for me to start out with, I was already theorycrafting its evolutions and the possibilities for my team, a hundred different scenarios flying through my head. However I didn't do all that planning and research on Murkrows for nothing and I was still gonna go forward with that plan, so I needed something that could mess well type-wise with the bird. After a couple of minutes, my brain clicked and I already knew what I was gonna evolve it into.

"Vortumna," I whispered.

"What was that?" Mr. Allacord asked.

"Its name will be Vortumna," I said smiling though the Eevee didn't even react, of course, it wouldn't know it's own name yet. Instead, it wandered around me and Allard sniffing our feet. I reached down and scratched it behind the ears and it gave a soft mewl and cuddled up against me, already my heart was melting. "Thank you very much for everything," I said picking up my pokeball and recalling Vortumna.

"It was my pleasure." He said smiling. "Now go on and make Cherrygrove proud."

* * *

When I arrived at the park my usual crowd was there alongside my murder. I led the small Murkrow I had picked out to the edge of the flock. threw a french fry to her and when she was distracted hit her as hard as I could with a pokeball. The surrounding murder all jumped up and flew away. I quickly released Vortumna beside the pokeball and told her to tackle the Murkrow as soon as it popped out. After two long seconds, the pokeball exploded with a flash and the Murkrow popped out looking dazed. The trap was set though and Vortumna tackled it to the ground and began clawing at its chest. It quickly retaliated with a peck to her chest and sent Vortumna flying. Before it could fly away however I Murkrow with another pokeball and had Vortumna lie in wait again. However this time it didn't matter the Murkrow was caught. When I looked around there was no Murkrow to be found, unfortunately for the rest of my life, I could never go near a Murkrow again without it flying off. They communicated and they knew who I was. It didn't matter though I got my girl.

I picked up my new friend and released her, immediately she tried to fly away. I recalled her and released her again, she tried this three more times before she stopped. When I released her again, she sat their feathers puffed out pouting making me smile. I knew she was gonna be a piece of work, but first things first I needed to heal her wounds before we set out. I leaned down and she jumped away. I lured her with a fry and reluctantly she came closer, there I nailed her with a quick spritz from a potion and she jumped away appalled at being betrayed again. However, when she realized the potion made her feel better she calmed down a bit. I smiled some more and recalled her, I would wait till we got to the forest to let her out again.

So with a smile on my face and a hop in my step and Vortumna by my side. I set out to the city gates and to begin the greatest days of my life!

* * *

Hey, Guys just wanna say thank you very much for reading, it really really means a lot. Didn't wanna put authors note in the first chapter as I wanted to leave the ending as is. However this one I'll actually talk about my plans for this. This is my first real serious attempt at a fic, that I am truly putting my everything into, So I hope you enjoy.

My plans for this fic are to create a realistic pokemon world along the lines of fics like Triumvirate, Regret, Sacrifice and Subjugation and more. Yes, I am doing that cheesy thing where you don't know the MC's name until I determine you do. Yes, it's a trope but it's a fun trope, especially to right around. It will blend anime, games, manga and alike and in this world stats aren't really a thing other than the obvious ones, so Honchkrow could absolutely overpower say a Pidgey or fight a Raticate or Arcanine but it couldn't do shit to something like a Dragonite or Salamence ya know? And the Pokemon with few exceptions will be acting most like animals or their animal counterparts and have that level of intelligence even if canon says otherwise.

Anyways I hoped you enjoyed the worldbuilding and test format of this chapter as much as I did writing it and I wish you all a good day :)


	3. Don't Stop Me Now

Don't stop me now!

* * *

When we got to the city gates a guard sat there in wait. I flashed him my pokedex and he waved me through with a nod and a smile. It was getting decently late but I wanted to make some distance away from town especially with my new gym schedule. When I stepped through the gates I was amazed, before me lay a path leading into a lush and wild forest. I knew that the path would be fastest and easiest way to get to the next town and that I was on a time limit. However I immediately turned and began walking left into the forest, I didn't like to take the easy way. Besides going through the forest this way would naturally let my pokemon grow faster, so I'd spend less time grinding once I got to the city and I would be able to challenge the gym leader sooner… Provided I didn't get lost.

When we got sufficiently far from the road, I let my Murkrow out. Once again she tried flying away and I recalled her and let her out again. This time she stayed. I reached down and tried to stroke her but she jumped away and flew to a branch nearby. I sighed, this was gonna take a while. I instead tried plan B, bribery! I lifted up some berries I'd found from a branch near the start of the forest and ate one to show her it was okay. She flew down and I gave her one, then tried stroking her, she jumped back. So I help one in the air above her, then cautiously lowered my hand. She seemed to get the message and let me stroke her.

"Good girl." I could and then fed her the berry. At this point I knew two things, one the bribery seemed to be working and two I was gonna need a lot more berries. However, Vortumna seemed to be getting jealous as she quickly ran and shoved her head between my hand and the Murkrow causing the bird to fly off into the trees again in a fright. "Don't worry I haven't forgotten about you," I said smiling and rubbing the little fox.

We spent the next two hours walking along the forest path, Vortumna by my side and the Murkrow flying along above us. Every time it thought I wasn't looking it tried to escape and every time I recalled and then released her. Until finally she got it and began sulkily following me and dropping branches on my head. Every time this happened Vortumna would growl and jump up at her as if to try and attack her and then look at me expectantly. It got to the point where the Murkrow was dropping things on my head less to retaliate at me and more because she found Vortumna so hilarious. By the twentieth time something dropped on my head I recalled her and released her on the ground where Vortumna promptly tackled her hard, she stopped dropping things on my head after that.

When the third hour struck, we stumbled into a small clearing. I knew I was hungry and I could tell the others were too, so I stopped so we could have, what in our new schedule would be lunch. I pulled out some of the pokefood I got for Vortumna and then two sandwiches for me and the Murkrow. I knew soon enough I'd want them to hunt on there own, but Vortumna was much too small and I knew the Murkrow would try and run away so this would do for now. Vortumna mewled happily and I couldn't help and smile at the small fox, she was so happy all the time and it was very contagious. To my surprise the Murkrow also cawed happily at the sandwich I gave her. I knew I had to give her a name soon, lest Murkrow stick and that was the last thing I wanted, but I wasn't sure what to give her. I began running names through my head, Loki, Moxie, Morpheus until finally I settled on one. Nyx, goddess of night. It made sense as she was a huge diva, it went in tandem with Vortumna's nickname.

"You liked that eh Nyx?" I asked her and reaching down to stroke her, she just stared confused back at me blinking. "Of course you get a name too," I said smiling that she let me stroke her this time. She cawed and flew away to a taller branch but I noticed her looking at me a little bit more interested before and I smiled to myself. After resting for a little longer I noticed Vortumna beginning to get droopy eyes, so I stood up and continued onward, this was a great way to build all of our stamina and by the excited yipp and fluttering above I knew her and Nyx were following behind me and I couldn't suppress a smirk that I didn't have to recall Nyx either.

Not much happened for the next couple of hours, we got into a couple squabbles with some local spinarak. Which ended up making a nice snack for Nyx, whom I was quickly figuring out had the appetite of a Snorlax and we ran across a Teddiursa but quickly fled in the other direction. Until finally the sun began peeking over the horizon. So looking around for another clearing I set up a basic campfire, unfurled my sleeping bag and got ready for bed. When I went to lie down, however, I noticed a brown ball of fur curled up and dozing away in my sleeping bag. I smiled and trying my hardest not to wake her I shifted her over until I could slip inside my sleeping go to sleep. As I felt sleep take me I felt something warm and harry slip inside the bag beside me and I cuddled it close to my chest.

I was awoken suddenly by something wet running across my face and when I opened my eyes I saw an excited and yipping Vortumna begin running circles around the camp. I looked around and noticed that the sun was high in the air, I had woken up just about the time that I wanted to. Looking around I noticed that Nyx was nowhere nearby and when I checked her GPS location on my pokedex, I saw it was about a kilometer west of here. Sighing I realized she must have made a dash for it while I slept and I quickly recalled and released her.

"Nice try!" I said smirking down at her as she looked positively aghast at seeing me again. "But You're not going anywhere." I said and I could see in her eyes she believed me."Listen you're stuck with me, that's that. However, it'll be a lot easier on you if you actually listen to me, that and you'll get a lot more of those sandwiches." I suggested and at those last words I saw a flash of something fly through her eyes. "So what'll it be?" I asked her. She promptly cawed in my face and then flew up and began dropping twigs on my head again. Well at least I had Vortumna and when I turned around to look at the fox I saw her running around jumping at a leaf blowing through the air. I sighed, this was a gonna be a rough day.

We continued onwards for a while longer, running to no one and nothing and eventually we stopped for a quick meal in which I was able to convince Nyx to come down and join us for. After that I made them start running drills and by them, I mean Vortumna, as Nyx again retreated into the trees. I placed rocks on the ground spaced apart and made Vortumna run and dash between them as fast as she could. At first, she didn't get it and kept trying to jump up on me to play but eventually, I got her to understand. Her first attempt she bailed hard, but she had the determination of a Luxray and soon enough was able to in between five rocks in under four seconds, good for a start but by I wanted to get that down to two seconds.

After that, I packed up camp and we began walking through the forest again. In which we ran into a couple more Spinaraks for Nyx to snack on and one for me to send back to the labs as it was larger than the average specimen Then Nyx got into a nasty fight with a Hoothoot when she intruded upon its tree and I had to recall her back before she got too hurt. The Hoothoot was massive and just beginning to develop the large horns that Noctowls have upon there head, I knew Nyx had no chance, but I caught the Hoothoot anyways and sent it back for research, I already had a flying type. Then I reached down and healed my little princess of a Murkrow and she stuck by me for a while, at least until I pissed her off enough to fly up and start dropping twigs on my head again. After another hour of travel, we ran into our first trainer in a wide clearing.

"Hey!" they yelled waving at me and I could make out distinctly through the darkness that they were male. I quietly waved back. "What are you doing out here so late?" He asked and I could make out he was roughly in his mid-thirties, had the beginning of a gut and had just started to bald. The sort of look of your stereotypical suburban dad.

"Uh, less crowded," I said shrugging, trying not to let my nerves get the better of me.

"Fair enough." He said also shrugging. "So uh… Wanna battle?" He asked casually.

"Two on two" I asked.

"Sure." He said in that same casual tone. We walked thirty paces away from each other and then turned around and faced one and another. I smiled cockily, it was my first battle and I was not gonna lose this.

"Nyx do this for me and I'll give you an extra sandwich tomorrow," I said recalling and releasing her. I had hoped that bribery would work on the bird and it seemed it did as Nyx, flew in the air to take on the challenger. He released a small, roundish gray and white pokemon which my pokedex identified as a Munchlax, the pre-evolution of Snorlax. I grinned widely, they were typically slow and customed to day time use and I could use that to my advantage. "Up," I yelled gesturing upwards and to my surprise Nyx obeyed.

"Stockpile!" I heard him yell and toss some berries to the Munchlax who promptly stood above them defensively.

"Peck." "Tackle." We both shouted and Nyx flew down and collided with the small bear, his beak putting a gash in the bear's side, while the bear sent her barrelling away backward, and she was just able to continue flying and avoid colliding with the ground.

"Swallow." I heard him command and the bear plucked one of his stash of berries off the ground and swallowed it, it quickly healed the gash down to a small cut. I swore loudly, this was gonna get us nowhere.

"Taunt it," I yelled and Nyx quickly began her favorite trick of flying around dropping twigs and branches, I was just happy this time it wasn't on me. The Munchlax began to go berserk following Nyx's movement below her until it finally started climbing a tree to get at her."

Now thief." I yelled when the small bear reached a branch sufficiently high up and the Murkrow dashed below and gobbled up the stash of berries the Munchlax had left unguarded. "Now, knock it out of the tree," I said grinning widely, the victory coming into my mind as the Murkrow flew up and knocked the Munchlax from its precarious position on a branch before it could hit the ground, however, a beam of red lights surrounded it and it was recalled.

"So that's 1-0 for you?" The man said smiling widely.

"Why'd you recall it?" I asked curiously to the man.

"It was clear you won, no use letting it get any more hurt right?" He explained and I grinned, he actually seemed like a decent person. However my grin dropped when I saw the next pokemon he released, a small yellow and brown rodent crackling with electricity, a Pikachu and I quickly recalled Nyx.

"Vortumna, you're up!" I said gesturing forward and my little Eevee ran forward bouncing with energy. The Pikachu opened up with a crackling bolt of lightning which Vortumna was just barely able to dodge, it seemed those drills were working well. "Quick attack," I yelled and the brown fox zipped forward and nailed the electric mouse before zipping away.

"Thunder Wave!" The man yelled, and a wide arc of lightning emerged from the Pikachu and collided with Vortumna who surprisingly was not hurt but instead seemed to be unable to move. Before I could do anything another crackling bolt of lightning slammed into Vortumna sending her sprawling through the air. However, she jumped up quickly, seemingly able to move again.

"That's my girl," I yelled triumphantly. "Now Quick attack again!" I yelled and she dashed forward slamming into the Pikachu again, sending it and collapsing in a heap where it was recalled. Forgetting all the embarrassment I ran forward and hugged my Eevee who snuggled up against me happily and mewling loudly.

"Here ya go little lady." He said handing me a stack of cash, and I blinked a confusedly a couple times before remembering where I was.

"Thanks," I said my face turning scarlet as I slowly took the money.

"How many badges do you have?" He asked curiously and I could see a weird twinkle in his eye I wasn't sure I liked.

"Um, None…" I said cautiously and he began laughing heartily.

"What's your name?"

"They call me MG," I said again very nervously.

"Well MG, my names Cale and I'm gonna be following your career very closely, you see I'm an eight badger." He said again laughing hard.

"But what? How? What? I beat you?" I stammered out nervously causing him to laugh even harder.

"I'm a breeder, and as most breeders know, ya gotta train the pokemon before you sell them." He said smiling down at me. "I like to train out here since this is a relatively beginner route close to a city, the cullings keep the stronger pokemon at bay. You just caught me while I was training a couple of newborns." He explained and I nodded along feeling a little disappointed. Of course I hadn't actually defeated an eight badger. "Don't look so discouraged little one." He said smiling down at me. "You still out strategized and beat an eight badger who was fighting at an equal level." And this perked me back up.

"So I hope you don't mind if I register your trainer profile?" He asked excitedly.

"No, not at all." I croaked out, unable to believe any of this. We both quickly took out our pokedexes.

"Oh ho! You have a researcher dex I see?" He says grinning widely. "How long have you been training?" He asked .

"Um… This is my second night." I squeaked out and he let out another belly laugh.

"You just keep getting more and more special with every second." He said and laughed again loudly, I was beginning to like this man. His happiness and laughter were infectious and you couldn't not smile when around him. "Here let me show you how it is done." He said and then exchanged dexes with me and showed me how to register him. "Now I like you little MG and I see great things, so if you need a discount breeder mon, you contact me alright?" He said and again I could not believe my fortune.

"What's the catch?" I blurted out before I knew what I was saying.

"Ah yes, I forgot you are an intelligent little girl." He said bringing his hand to his face. "Only two catches, one: you tell me when you are battling in a gym or tournament. Two Unless we don't have it, you get your pokemon from my breeding farm." He explained and stuck out his hand.

"Deal," I said shaking his hand and willing my face to look less like a tomato than it already did.

"Alright now, I must return to the city to heal these two little guys." He said gesturing to the two pokeballs containing the Munchlax and the Pikachu. "Would you like a ride?" He asked and I shook my head. "I figured as much, best of luck little MG and remember to contact me when you face the Violet city gym.' He reminded me and I nodded vigorously.

As soon as he took off, I released Nyx and hugged her tight, she squawked and squealed and fought wildly, and I'm sure I still have a few scars from that first hug but I was too overjoyed to care. When I released her, she immediately flew up to her usual perches in trees and it took me taking out two sandwiches to convince her to come down and let me pet her. In which I sat and gushed over and over about how amazing her and Vortumna were. Finally, I saw the sun begin to peak its head over the horizon, so I unfurled my sleeping bag and set up camp. Again when I was done I saw Vortumna curled up on top of the sleeping bag and I smiled softly at her. I quickly scooted under the blankets and cuddled her closely again. I had trouble falling asleep that night.

I was happy and excited about a new kind of high and nothing was gonna stop me now… Or so I thought.

* * *

Hey guys just wanna thank you again for reading and supporting this fic, it means a lot to me and I couldn't be happier to be writing this for you. As you can see we finally named our grumpy little Murkrow companion. I like to run through the God's at least for now and don't worry not all of them will be named after gods but I found it a fitting name for our little grumpy goddess of the night. I also would like to give a shoutout to /u/StarRice on Reddit who for some crazy reason has liked this story enough to narrate the first two chapters so far. So a huge thank you very much to her.

As for the chapter itself? I had an amazing time writing it a happier and more upbeat chapter with a solid win for our little MG. Especially against an eight badger and I know she seems like a little bit of a Mary Sue, I'm sorry about that but as of right now I wanna build her up before tearing her down you know and well next chapter we'll be going back to a bit more of the darker tone of the prologue and you'll definitely get to enjoy the other side of her. For now I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you next time!


	4. Through the Fire and The Flames

_It was so hot! It's January, why is it so hot?_  That was all I could think as I opened my eyes groggily, something headbutting against my chest frantically. I couldn't see the sky, even though it was clearly still nightttime and there should be a full sky of stars. I couldn't see anything just a large black cloud blotting out the sky I could hear crashing behind me and I jumped up to look. No living creature greeted me though instead, I could see a monster made out of flames smoke and ash spreading its way quickly towards me. I quickly recalled Vortumna, slung my bag around my back and began sprinting in forward away from from the flames as fast as I possibly could, ignoring the food and my sleeping bag I left behind.

I checked my Pokedexs GPS and saw there was a notification from the Ranger Corps for all trainers to evacuate the area as fast as possible. I also saw that Nyx took off again and I recalled her not wanting her to get stuck in this inferno. For now, my entire focus was on getting out of this alive, so I continued running as fast as possible, weaving my way in between trees as fast as I could, I was making good distance but I couldn't keep this up forever and the flames were starting to gain ground against me. By my estimate It was maybe over a kilometer away. I came crashing through some tree`s into a clearing and fell onto my stomach. When I looked up I saw a group of male trainers maybe a year older than I was sleeping away without a care in the world. Until I came crashing in and they all sprang up terrified.

"RUN!" I yelled quickly getting to my feet and getting ready to sprint.

"Why?" One of them a tall lanky brown haired boy said annoyed

"Fire." I gasped. "Big fire!"

"Wait, what? What do you mean?" A short blonde haired boy with a blue baseball cap.

"Big fire, coming this way. No time to explain." I said as fast as I could, I could feel the heat beginning to prickle my back again.

"Oh my god." I heard another one of them say a chubby boy with black hair and saw him point behind me. So against my own better judgment I turned around and saw the flames approaching at an even more rapidly.

The last a big, blonde haired boy with glasses was silent and already running.

"Run!" I yelled again and began sprinting forward again. I heard shouts from behind and when I chanced a look backward I saw the three of them crashing through the undergrowth behind me and catching me quickly until finally, they were running beside me.

"Shit!" I heard one of them yell.

"David" I heard another yell and I stopped again against my better judgment. The one named David was the chubby black haired guy and he was sprawled out on the ground wrapped in an old and abandoned Spinarak web, flames approaching dangerously close and the other guy stood in shock. There, other friend, the lanky brown haired boy went running past us, not looking back. Recklessly I ran forward and grabbed the man stood still and began pulling him away from the fire and his friend. Emotionless and expressionless he ran alongside me and in the distance, we could hear David's dying screams of agony directed through the forest like a symphony of pain.

The flames were catching up to us too fast. I was panicking and I was tired and the smoke in my lungs was making me cough terribly as me and this other guy ran side by side, not a word was spoken between us, However, ahead of us we saw a large lake through a clearing of tree and we ran towards it as fast as possible, I could feel horrible pain against my entire backside and I knew I was slowly being singed, and a few times I felt my legs almost buckle. However, I was determined, I was not gonna die, not now, right at the beginning of my journey, not like this. So with determination, I and the other guy went crashing through the treeline and over an edge submerging into the cold January lake waters. There we met his other two friends.

"What the fuck Andrew." I heard the guy behind me shout at the lanky black-haired fellow as we approached shallower waters where we could stand. "You just let David die like that? Didn't even stop to help him?" He asked screaming at the guy named Andrew.

"I know, I'm sorry Jeffrey, I just I panicked." Andrew cried, tears streaming down his face as fast as the water droplets from the lake.

"And you!" The man named Jeffrey said turning towards me. "Why'd you pull me away?" He yelled angrily.

"You would've died," I stated bluntly and emotionlessly.

"I could've saved him." He said back more to himself than to me.

"No, you couldn't of," I said again bluntly. "That was Spinarak web, the strongest of insectile webs. You would've had to precision cut your friend out of it, and it would've taken at least fifteen minutes. You had five." I explained as emotionlessly and rationally as I could, in truth I was panicking and filled with guilt myself but I didn't wanna let that show.

"I cou-" He began.

"No! You couldn't of." His friend, the one who had remained quiet so far interjected and the man named Jeffrey bowed his head deeply.

"We should get out of here," I said as I saw burning trees begin to teeter and fall into the lake around us.

"Where? Everythings on fire." Jeffrey yelled gesturing to the forests around us.

"There's an island in the center," I said pointing to a small island in the center of the lake about a twenty-minute swim away from where we were.

"It's so far though," Andrew complained.

"It's better than dying here." The quiet one said shrugging and began to swim towards the island. We all looked to each other and then began to follow his lead, though after about five minutes we were all on our backs lightly pushing ourselves too tired to actually swim.

"Hey, guys?" Andrew asked nervously. "What lives in this lake?"

"Uh…Wooper. Bidoof, Goldeen, and Barboach. Oh and of course Magikarp, why?" I asked curiously.

"It's just I felt something brush against me." He said anxiety evident in his voice. At this we all kinda glanced at each other, turned back onto our stomachs and began full on swimming again, not caring about our own tiredness. After another ten minutes of intense paddling, we reached a flat cliffside on the island where the water was deep but we could pull ourselves out of the water. Jeffrey, the quiet guy and I all pulled ourselves out of the water no problem but Andrew was having troubles getting up. So Jeffrey went to help him but before he could grab his hand, Andrew screamed and then was pulled under.

"Andrew!" We heard Jeffrey scream reaching down into the water, but all that met his hands was a large pool of red congealing at the top of the lake. I ran and pulled Jeffrey back away from the water as I saw a giant long blue shape emerge from the water only a few feet away from his hand.

"Help me" I yelled to the quiet guy, as I tried to drag Jeffrey away from the water's edge and he came over and grabbed his other side and helped me pull him away. When I looked into the water I could see two giant eyes watching us from underneath the lake and I was glad I acted when I did.

"What happened?" The quiet guy said once we pulled Jeffrey away from the cliffs and into the small woodlands on the island, Jeffrey continued to sit there and babble to himself in shock.

"Fucking... Gyarados…" I said panting wildly still tired from the swim and also dragging Jeffrey away.

"But I thought there was no more wild lake Gyarados? That they culled them all years ago just after the Lake of Rage fiasco?" He asked panic evidently within his voice.

"Well, I guess they missed some or… They just recently evolved or any other combination of things." I said panic now evident in my own voice, trying to take in all that I had seen today.

"My fault…' We heard Jeffrey mutter but we were too shocked to actually say anything to comfort him. Instead, we sat there in silence.

"I'll send the rangers our coordinates," I said shakily and the quiet guy just nodded while Jeffrey appeared to not even hear what I said and continued to babble wildly to himself. I plugged in our coordinates and it said with all the panicking people within the wildfire and the high level of casualties that they wouldn't be able to grab us until tomorrow. So despite everything that happened today, I suggested we made a fire so we didn't freeze to death in the middle of the night and the quiet guy nodded and together we set out to gather kindling and logs. When all was done we sat there in silence in front of the fire while Jeffrey babbled to himself wildly.

"What's your name?" He asked after what seemed like hours but was most likely not even a half hour.

"MG," I said back plainly.

"I meant your real name." He said smiling hesitantly.

"People know me as MG, so I go by MG," I answered back and he went quiet again. "What's yours?" I asked back, less to know and more so to be polite/

"Robin Maloney." He said smiling back at me. "Pleasure to actually meet ya MG." He said sticking out his hand and I shook it firmly. "So you're a trainer eh? Me too." He said and I could distinctly make out an accent in his voice.

"Oh really how many badges?" I asked curiously, it's obvious he was a trainer because he was out in the woods but I wanted to know more about my competition.

"Two from here and one from Sinnoh where I am from." He said and my curiosity was peaked even more.

"You're from Sinnoh?" I asked trying not to let my curiosity shine through my voice. The Johto/Kanto region and Sinnoh has a history of friendship going way back, being some of the only regions to the north and had a history of great trade plans and economic growth, Sinnoh being one of the biggest processors of metals gems, and oils with there vast underground network and Kanto's silph being the biggest manufacturer and exporter of technology in the entire world, it made an ideal and perfect partnership

:"Yup, born and raised!" He said smiling and lifting his hand up in the air as an acknowledgment. "I'm just here to earn a few easy badges before heading home and joining our ranger corps." He said smiling widely.

"Ah, so you're gonna be a ranger?" I asked moving slightly closer to the fire to warm up a bit.

"Yeah wasn't my life's ambition, I wanted to be champion." He said chuckling to himself.

"Well, what changed?" I asked feeling uneasy about my own plans now.

"Well I'm fifteen, been on my journey for five years now and only have three badges, At this point, I'd rather just serve my country than rule it." He said a light gleam behind his eyes. "That and Dawn Paladino."

"Who's Dawn Paladino?" I asked curiously.

"Greatest champion the Sinnoh region ever had, somehow even better than Cynthia Shirona." He said and I could sense the pride in his voice. "Changed the whole system, made it a democracy." He stated and I stared at him blankly.

"Democracy?" I asked and I could hear his laughter boomed through the night.

"What are they teaching you kids in school?" He asked laughing even harder.

"Uh… I never went to school." I muttered weakly and with that, he stopped laughing as suddenly as he started.

"Oh… That makes more sense than." He said awkwardly. "She created a second branch of government, with equal power than the champion. One that is voted in by the people, they're called the prime minister and they can't be the current champion. She did it so it's not entirely about strength but instead what they believe in. Not only that but every vote has equal power, champion, gym leader, PM, elite, you name it. Not only that but nontrainers are also voted into seats of power to help give them a voice too." He explained and I tried to absorb it all in.

"Wait so if everyone's vote is equal, how do the champion and prime minister have equal power," I asked confused about the whole validity of the situation.

"Ah, sorry about that eh? The prime minister and champion have the ability to veto any bill together." He explained and I nodded satisfied.

"So who's the current prime minister?" I asked and he smiled wildly.

"Why Dawn Paladino of course, seventy-eight percent of the entire region voted for her." He said smiling proudly.

"But didn't you just say the champion couldn't be the prime minister?" I asked annoyed at his explanations.

"Yes, but Dawn Paladino, resigned as champion, gave it back to Cynthia so she could take the post she was voted into." He said smiling widely.

"Then why don't you go for the championship?" I yelled back angrily going back to the point that started this entire conversation.

"Ah because I like our leaders, and would rather serve them than lead them." He said smiling and I tried not to scream. "Have you seen Jeffrey?" He asked jumping up and looking around and it was then that I noticed the same thing, he'd gone missing.

"No… He was right here." I said confused and then I let our Nyx join me who gave a squawk of protest at not actually being free. "Oh hush you," I said tossing her a berry which she gobbled up in a second and then remained quiet.

"Alright I'm going to go search inside the forest, you check the shore." He said seriously and I nodded uneasily thinking about the giant eyes I saw in the water. Still, I bucked up and I walked towards the cliffs we climbed up on. There I saw a humanoid figure standing above the water and looking down into it, something dripping frantically from an outstretched hand into the water.

"Lovely night tonight?" It said somehow both calmly and madly and I could tell it was Jeffrey.

"Jeffrey, get away from the shore," I said calmly and slowly approaching him.

"Just look at those stars, they're never that bright anywhere near the city." He said in that same chilling voice.

"Jeffrey," I said as I could hear something moving in the water below.

"I'm sorry I'm such a screw-up." He said and I could see tears flowing down his face. "I'm sorry I couldn't save them." He said again and this time that voice was now cracked and emotional. As I got closer I could make out the substance flowing from his hand was red and I could hear more frenzied swimming from below the water. "Take good care of them for me." He said smiling and gesturing towards his pokeballs which were laying on the ground feet away.

"Wa-" I began but before I even finished a giant blue serpent emerged tall from the lake and crunched down on Jeremy, a wave of blood splashing the surrounding area. I heard him scream once and then he was dragged under and never seen again. I just sat there in shock for minutes, not quite sure what to do. Nyx went flying off my shoulder squawking like crazy into the night and I calmly recalled her. Not even processing the fact that he was there and then he was gone…I finally and numbly walked over, picked up his pokeballs and then slowly walked back to camp completely and utterly in a daze.

"Hey did ya find him?" I heard Robin say when I made camp and I just nodded slowly. "Great well where is he?" He asked excitedly again and I just shook my head and then lifted up the pokeballs. "What… No?" I heard him ask in a feeble voice as if hoping I'd reject it but I said nothing. Instead, I just laid down beside the fire, closed my eyes and prayed to Arceus that I'd fall asleep soon.

* * *

After hours and many nightmares of giant Gyarados going from city to city blowing up the Johto region and watching Jeremy and Andrew being eaten over and over again while David screamed burning to death, I was finally awoken by the rangers the next moment and when I did wake up I felt a searing pain in the back of my legs.

"Excuse me." I heard one of them say. "Excuse me, miss? I have a few questions for you." They said calmly, almost paternally and I awoke rubbing my eyes wildly.

"Um yes?" I half asked half yawned looking up into the eyes of a pretty female ranger most likely in her mid-thirties

"I just have a couple questions for you." She repeated and I nodded at her. "Are you the one who sent us the coordinates?" She asked and I nodded. "Where is the registered owner of those pokeballs?" She asked pointing at Jeremy's pokeballs and I went numb again.

"Gyarados, Gyarados in the lake., I said voice shaking and breaking each time I said the horrible creatures name.

"Oh, my-Alex!" She gasped and then yelled. "We need to evacuate asap, we got a code 130 in this lake and are in dire need of the electric core, I repeat we have a code 130." I heard her say speaking very fast into her walky-talky. "Don't worry we're gonna get you out of here." She said flashing me a reassuring and paternal smile and it was in that moment that for the first time since I was a young kid I broke into sobs and she just hugged me and held me close until I stopped.

"S-sorry." I said as I finally stopped crying.

"Nothing to apologize for, its natural." She said flashing me that same reassuring and paternal smile and I smiled back at her even if I didn't really feel like smiling. Eventually, a few more rangers arrived, one of them had an Abra which would teleport us to Violet city for immediate medical care. The rest I saw all had powerful electric types including a Jolteon, Electivire, two Manectrics. A Luxray, Two Magnezones and a Lanturn, all fully equipped and ready to fight. Just seeing these made me feel better as it meant that any Gyarados alive in the lake would be toast in mere minutes.

Before we could see them in action, however, Robin and I were instructed over to the Abra and in what I can only explain as a horribly painful jerk from the small of your back and an incredibly dizzying and awful sensation Robin and I were both throwing up in the middle of a hospital room. We both turned and gave each other a sickly and dark grin and then were rushed into our beds from nurses who began doing all sorts of tests and other things on us.

We just continued grinning at each other and then laughing as hard as we both could. We did it, we survived and it was the funniest thing in the world. The nurses may have thought us mad but we didn't care, no one went through what we did, no one went through the fire and the flames and carried on, no one watched two people be horrifically eaten by Gyarados and then slept on the same island surrounded by them. So we laughed and we laughed until our bellies ached and we couldn't laugh anymore, and then we slept.

* * *

H ey guys thanks again as always for reading, I appreciate the follows, reviews, Kudos and more, so thank you very much :) So after a relatively cute and vanilla chapter yesterday we finally hit another actually dark chapter. Don't worry not every chapter is gonna be like this, in fact, most likely a majority won't. However, this is here to prove that people die, in this world almost too easily and there are regular cullings and task forces dedicated to making the world actually liveable. Despite being fourteen, or thirty six, all it takes is one dumbass that can't control a fire type and not having a companion in the water and you're dead. No matter the trainer, experiences or badges, there is consequences to everything.

Also, we meet what is one of the biggest themes of this fanfic, politics! Now don't worry this will be more about political theory and ideology, and it definitely won't have anything to do with out current political climate as I'm sure you're all just as sick of hearing about it as I am. No there will be no references or jokes or anything like that and instead will again deal with political ideology, voting, passing bills and other things so to speak.

Also sorry about it being late, I went camping for a few weeks and then had to rewrite this entire chapter as I didn't like it at all before. Will try to keep a minimum schedule of once every week to two weeks.

Anyways again, thanks for reading.


	5. Time

I was forced to stay in the hospital for two weeks, they said I had severe burns down my back and the back of my legs. I was fed a mixture of Burn heal and Rawst berries through an Iv in my arm and it was great as it made the pain go away and made me go all giddy and happy, at least until they cut it away and deemed me alright to heal naturally, that just hurt like a fucking bitch. Robin came and visited me a couple times and we talked more about Sinnoh, Sinnoh politics and other things though we never talked about that day, making careful to never mention the horrible things we both witnessed.

I learned that he met Jeremy, David, and Andrew when he first came here around a year ago. It was there the first year of traveling and since he'd been around for a while he took them under his wing. Felt he had to show them how to survive if he was gonna be a ranger…. Yeah, I could tell it was destroying him that he couldn't save any of them, even if I lived too. However, after registering each other in one and another pokedexes. He stopped visiting, he left to continue his journey and I couldn't blame him, I was itching to do the same thing.

I also learned that the night of the fire, both my parents were dead. Surprising myself I cried heavily at the news.. After years of wanting them dead, years of abuse, yelling and screaming and hitting and neglecting me they were finally gone and I was beyond sad, I mean they would never be proud of me, never see me prosper and suceed or cheer me on? I guess what my dad did in the end really hit me hard, and so I cried for a couple days upon hearing the news. Then I did what I always did with my feelings, hid it deep down where I hoped to never touch it again. Plus now my journey was something serious, now I didn't actually have a home to return too.

Finally, apparently there was to be a big autopsy on Gold's body. It was now suspected that it was caused by some sort of psychic attack that scrambled his brain. Since there was no grown wild pokemon strong enough to take on Gold it made no sense that it wouldn't  be some form of accident and as such foul play was strongly suspected to be a part of it.

A the end of the two weeks I was angry, I now only had three-hundred-forty-eight days left to beat three gyms and I was already on a tight schedule beforehand, now at least in violet I'd probably have to start taking shortcuts, and I didn't like taking shortcuts because they were unreliable, I liked having a plan with as much certainty and the least amount of variables as possible. Luckily I had a lot of time to plan in those two weeks and I came up with something that if done right would most likely guarantee me ahead of schedule.

Originally I had one-hundred-twenty-one days to beat a gym or seventeen and a half weeks. In my original plan. The average trainer took twenty days to travel from Cherrygrove to Violet city, fifty-two days to Azalea and another fifty-six days to travel through Ilex forest and to Goldenrod. This took away one-hundred-twenty-eight days in traveling alone and that's in perfect conditions. So add roughly another thirty days for unsuspected disasters, another fifteen, for any pokemon I decide to catch and tame. So were at one-hundred-forty-three days, more than a third of the time in traveling alone. that left me with one hundred-eighty-three days within the cities, you have to book a gym battle at least a week beforehand, so that's another twenty-one days and if you lost you couldn't challenge them for another two weeks. On average a trainer loses one in two gym battles, so let's say I lose two, that's another twenty-eight days right there, leaving me with one-hundred-thirty-four days left, More than half my days gone.

I wanted a day to relax when I got into each city and before I left each city, taking away six days and leaving me one-hundred-twenty-eight I wanted two days, to sell pokemon I'd caught but no longer needed and to refurbish all of my supplies, so there goes another six days and I'd like another day to actually see the sights and enjoy these cities. Leaving me with one-hundred-twenty days left and I wanted at least a month for training in between each gym and another four days to review recent gym battles and do my homework on each gym leader. So that's another one-hundred-two days, leaving me with eighteen days leftover. Add three days, as I got to Violet roughly three days before schedule due to the Abra. However, I missed out on seventeen days worth of training in the wild, so add those in and I am left with four days. Four measly days after no other variables to my entire calculations.

I needed to improve that so the first thing I did when I got out of the hospital was to book, a gym battle one week ahead, this meant cutting my training time by a quarter, but it also saved me twenty-one days, leaving me with twenty-five extra days and that was something I could work with. I chose this path despite it taking longer than the Violet to Goldenrod to Ecruteak route for two reasons. It would allow me to maximize my training while traveling which was the easiest and most natural way to make your pokemon stronger and also because I was interested in following the route champion Gold did it. I mean if he was able to do three gyms in one year this way, why wouldn't I have been able to.

So after registering myself for a gym battle I went to the pokemart and restocked on supplies and then I found a small music store, in the middle of town, something I knew was here from the research I did before my journey. There I purchased a small harmonica, and after the owner of the shop teaching me how to use it, I set out to the city limits. You see every great trainer in history has used a code for battling. After all, just saying peck, or wing attack or hyper beam allows an opponent to know exactly what you're going to do and can counter it exactly. However, with codes, it makes a match more about strategy, in both the trainers trying to crack each other's codes and in the way which they can command and adapt on the fly. Every great trainer has had a code.

Lance speaks serpent, through a series of ever revolving and changing hisses and growls, he can command his dragons to do grand things. Red was a drummer, the first thing he did on his journey was pick up a couple drumsticks and through a series of sometimes simple and other time complex beats, he was able to take that championship. Blue was a guitarist, playing simple and beautiful melodies to enchant his pokemon to do incredible work. I looked it up, Dawn Paladino was an incredible singer, Sabrina is psychic, Brock knows how to send vibrations into the ground that only his ground pokemon understand, and Gold. Gold had the most uncrackable code of them all, his commands would yield different results. If he said ice beam, a thunderbolt could appear, however, if he emphasized any syllable slightly different an entirely different move would happen, so from Ice Beam, you could get a thunderbolt, earthquake, rock slide, or even just an ice beam anyways and it changed every single battle. Myself I was gonna go the Red and Blue way with my trusty new harmonica.

Once outside the city limits, I released Vortumna and Nyx. Vortumna immediately ran over and cuddled me, whining all the while and it put a smile on my face. Even Nyx seemed to be pleased to see me, though I might have been imagining it. I decided to reward her for not running away anyways and tossed her an orange berry which she greedily gobbled the first hour I made them run drills and when Nyx didn't, I kept recalling her and releasing her until she finally and reluctantly agreed, I was done with this rebel bullshit. Then I checked there levels. Nyx was around level twelve and Vortumna was level nine. Unlike those silly video games based on Red and Blue's journey. Levels didn't mean everything, they were just a rough baseline of your pokemon's power. It takes in a whole combination of things, like size, strength, training, health and so much more. However, despite this a higher level doesn't mean winning, I mean a level one hundred Rattata is still a rat, despite its high level if it went against even a low leveled Charizard it'd most likely lose. I mean this is a giant fire-breathing dragon that can fly, against a basic form small rat, it's basic biology. However, a strong Raticate might have a chance due to being evolved, and being all around stronger, faster and bigger.

After the first hour of running basic drills we stopped and had lunch, as it was around noon now, I had given up on my stupid and dangerous nighttime training regime. After that fire, I realized it was a little too dangerous for my skill level. After lunch, I set up some pebbles in a line like cones and made Vortumna dash in between them, while I had Nyx fly in between trees and had her fly as close to them as possible for an hour. I wanted to get there agility a lot higher, especially when I'd be battling the Violet city gem which specialized in flying types. While they did that I practiced playing my harmonica. After that, I spent the next two hours trying to train them to relate certain notes to basic commands. Nyx seemed to pick up on it quick, in which I'm guessing was due to the way birds communicate through songs and pitches but sweet little Vortumna was completely lost and instead just ran forward and tried to cuddle me.

After that, I took my merry band of misfits into the woods, where Nyx tried to escape and I had to recall and release her too much squawking and protest. There I kept walking until we found a clearing which took us about a half hour to find. There, I had Nyx and Vortumna start battling each other. I needed to toughen them up as both were relatively frail pokemon and I wanted to start working on basic strategies. At first, I simply observed them and applied healing items as necessary. However, Nyx kept winning every battle, so I took Vortumna's side and began giving her vocal commands and eventually she started winning every battle. So then I backed away, and let them do their thing again, this time Nyx only won about two-thirds of all the battles. After around three hours of that, it began to get dark, so I packed up and we headed back to civilization. When we got to the city limits it was just around seven o'clock, so we had a small dinner in which I underfed Nyx for trying to run away.

I recalled and got into the city limits at around seven-fifteen. There I headed directly to the library and began looking through any and all videos I could find relating to gym challenges on Falkner, starting from the most recent and going backward, though I made an exception to download Golds battle as soon as I possibly could. I downloaded as many as I could onto my Pokedex and then headed to the local pokecenter to heal my pokemon and find lodging. Thanks to champion Goldberg, all pokecenters must supply free lodging for all trainers and provide free healthcare which would be funded by the government. So that was one thing I certainly had to be thankful for.

When I got all healed up and retired to my room, I released Vortumna to cuddle me and then I began watching the videos I had downloaded. Falkner was an interesting person, winning his league championship thirty-three years ago at the age of fourteen and immediately stepped down to take over his father's place as Violet city gym leader. He blasted through the league in four years, taking down two gyms a year and being the first person ever to defeat the elite four and champion in under six months. Of course, he was supplied with absurdly high-level flying type pokemon by his father, and if you watched his league run it looked as if no one actually tried to beat him. Most likely due to his father political connections, they made a bargain to let him win as long as he stepped down, a common strategy for certain families and dynasties. There was a long history of corruption and nepotism within the region that everyone knew about, but he kept the city safe, so it didn't matter to most people anyways.

When watching the videos I examined every detail I could. I found out that in lower level challenges it was a one on one battle with each challenger able to use two pokemon and that Falkner rotated between five lower level pokemon that he used. A Murkrow, a Swablu, A Doduo, a Farfetch'd and a Pidgeotto. I also noticed that two out of every three gym battles he used the Pidgeotto. Which means that most likely I'd most likely have to worry about four variables, not five. Out of those four, the Farfetch'd was the easiest to battle and the Murkrow the hardest. Though ultimately I wanted to battle either the Farfetch'd or Doduo as they were naturally flightless birds, which would give Vortumna equal footing against them. Next, I watched Golds.

* * *

" _Ladies and gentleman, welcome one and all to your league sponsored pokemon battle!" An announcer spoke to the crowd as cameras flew across the entire room showing off a cheering crowd. "Today we have a special match, the debut of a mister Ethan Goldberg of Newbark town! The chosen one of Professor Elm.": The announcer yelled to a thunderous applause as the camera zoomed in on Ethan approaching the challenger box. "And here we have the mean! The lean! The scourge of the skies, everybody put your hands together for your own Violet city gym leader, Falkner!" He yelled once more and the stadium erupted into even greater applause. "Battlers, the rules are simple, it'll be a one on one battle, each trainer is allowed two pokemon each and no substitutions." The announcer explained. "Challenger are you ready?" He asked and Gold nodded. "Gym leader are you ready?" He asked and Falkner gave a thumbs up to great applause. "Then begin." The announcer yelled to even greater applause._

_Immediately Gold on golds side, came a small mammal with fire protruding from it's back, a Quilava. Falkner sent forth his Swablu and with a high humming note, it dived, down upon Golds Quilava._

" _Tackle." Gold said and the Quilave dodged out of the way. "Tackle." He repeated once more and the Quilava shot out flames at the surprised Swablu, engulfing it and taking it out in one shot to incredible applause._

" _My Arceus! What a powerful Quilava." The announcer yelled out. "And the training that went into it, to respond to the wrong commands like that, we might have a champ in the making folks." He yelled out and the camera panned down to an angry Falkner who released his second pokemon a giant Pidgeotto. "Oh my folks, it seems Falkner wants to end this and quick." The announcer yelled out as the bird let out a screech._

" _Ember." Gold yelled out and the Quilava shot out a giant breathe of smoke encasing the entire battlefield. From within, there was a screech, a squawk and when the smoke cleared the Pidgeotto was on the ground knocked unconscious and Gold stood proud and victorious."_

* * *

The footage cut off after that but I was amazed; He ended the battle in only three commands and didn't even need to tell his Quilava what to do within the smoke. I needed to start working towards that as quick as I could. However, I couldn't so instead I stayed up until four AM watching battles on my phone. Then I woke up four hours later and started my training all over again.

I continued this extreme training regimen for the next five days, staying up until four AM every night and training outside the city limits until eight PM every day. In which nothing exciting really happened, except for kicking a few bug trainers with Nyx and on the third day when Vortumna finally cracked the harmonica code and I danced around with her in my arms for a few minutes before going back to training. On the sixth day I only stayed up until ten PM, I needed to be well rested for the next day and I was happy to have a day to sleep for more than four hours. Until finally the day of my gym battle was here, and I was out of time.

* * *

Hey guys, thanks once more for reading, in this chapter I really wanted to express and explore how the MC thinks, rationalizes and plans and ultimately just show off how close the deadline would actually be and how short a year of travel actually is. I also wanted to do some more political worldbuilding with the whole dynasty thing as I think it's an interesting concept that would most definitely have a basis formed within a world of power, and has huge consequences within our own world as well and most of all wanted to show the codes off something I find super cool.

The codes were heavily inspired by Pokemon The Origin of Species which I heavily suggest you check out as it's one of the best fanfics out there. Though Reds code was actually inspired by a fanfic called The Summit in which they tap there mic's to deliver a command, I ran with that and just made him a drummer for fun I guess and because drumming and beats allow complex commands too.

But anyways, thanks for reading and you all have a good night!


	6. Flight Of The Bumblebee

I arrived at the gym at Nine-Forty-Two AM, my gym battle wasn't until Two PM and I was the sixth challenger but I made sure to arrive early so I could watch the gym battles before mine. I watched eagerly from the stands but the first two were completely uninteresting. It was two low-level bug catchers most likely twelve days into their journey, mix in a bit of cockiness and you are left with a clean sweep of there teams and the two poor bastards are sent away crying. The third battle was somewhat interesting, a third badger who narrowly lost to Falkner's teams after some unlucky misses and lucky dodges and then there was the fourth battle.

It was the goth girl that was among the others at the testing center, apparently, her name was Lola Lunningwell; she had made it to Violet on her own too and was already challenging the gym leader. I started the battle completely uninterested, after all, she started just over three weeks ago like I did and I felt that that was too soon for even myself to be challenging the gym leader. So I suspected her to be just another cocky kid that would lose like all the others and my opinion was further cemented when she sent out her first pokemon, a Dunsparce.

Now Dunsparce is among the weakest pokemon in existence. Evolving to be nearly blind within to fit their natural habitat, Dunsparce uses echolocation to navigate the dark cave to hunt smaller animals that live within such as baby Zubat and Teddiursa. However, Zubats live in flocks and hang on ceilings so unless the baby Zubat is injured and left behind or is too stupid to keep up with the flock a Dunsparce will never get to eat and eating Teddiursa means a pissed off Ursaring which is among the worst things to be faced with. There small and insignificant wings mean they can lightly hover off the ground for small periods of time but it's near useless as it uses so much energy that they must instead rest for a long period after. The only useful thing a Dunsparce has in its weaponry is that through its echolocations it is often able to pinpoint the place on an opponent that would cause it the most pain and make it drop its current attack. All of this leads to a pokemon so useless and near extinction that it's a wonder it ever survived this long and that natural selection would most likely take care of outside of zoos and specialized areas like the Safari Zone. Among competitive battlers, there were only three instances of a trainer ever taking a Dunsparce far in a tournament and none ever made it past fourth place. So I was pretty skeptical about her chances to defeat Falkner.

However, I paid close attention to the battle anyways to try and gauge the Falkners team. He started out with a Natu, something I had not seen him use in any of the videos I had seen. I cursed quietly as this added a sixth variable that I had not planned for as of yet and there was nothing I hated more than unplanned variables and while I watched I began to form strategies within my head.

Lola made the first move, ordering her Dunsparce to use the attack thunder wave which connected with the Natu seriously slowing it down, a move Dunsparce is only TM compatible with, meaning she blew quite a lot of money on this. I had to admit it was a smart move as flying types typically relied on speed something she'd just neutered. Falkner sang a high pitched note and the Natu sent out a wave of psychic energy which connected hard with the Dunsparce and sent him flying backward.

Lola retaliated with a headbutt attack and due to the Dunsparce natural ability and the thunder wave slowing the Natu down it was unable to retaliate. Again Lola ordered it and again the Natu didn't retaliate. This repeated once more until finally the bird pokemon was knocked unconscious and returned. After that Falkner switched into his Pidgeotto and Lola into a Mareep and I lost interest as at this point it was obvious who would win with the type advantage. I instead went back to formulating new strategies that took the Natu into consideration until the match ended with Lola winning and her walking back into the waiting area for challengers where she would meet Falkner and obtain her badge. I also made my way to the waiting area as I would be up soon and I didn't wanna be late.

* * *

When my name was finally called I felt like I was gonna be sick and on my way up to the challenger podium I stopped by the garbage can and relinquished the sandwich, much to the disgust of the other challengers waiting in the lobby.

"Helllllooooo everybody!" I was greeted by the loud voice of the announcer as I made my way up the stairs. "Today is the debut battle of mysterious trainer that goes by the name MG." He said and I smirked at my nickname. One of the most important parts of being a trainer is building a reputation for sponsors and one of the most common ways of doing that is with a strong and mysterious nickname. Nobody knows Red and Blues names, instead, they call them there nicknames and most people called Ethan Goldberg, Gold. Thus I stuck with the nickname MG and registered under it for this battle. "And here we have the lean, the mean, the scourge of the skies, everybody put your hands together for your Violet city gym leader, Faaallllllkkkknnnerrrr!" The announcer shouted out to a chorus of applause around the stadium. "The rules are simple, it'll be a one on one battle, each trainer is allowed two pokemon each and no substitutions." He explained. "Challenger are you ready." He said and I gave a nod pulling out my harmonica. "Gym leader are you ready?" He asked and Falkner nodded "Then begin!" He said and Falkner and I both released our pokemon revealing a Eevee and a Swablu. I smirked, it was no Doduo or Farfetch'd but it was better than a Murkrow or Pidgeotto.

I quietly took in the arena below me. It was pretty basic all things considered, a few tall rocks strewn around it and some grass on the ground, it was only when I looked up did I see the complex nets and maze of wooden planks and walkways that lined the rafters of the arena. Multiple psychic pokemon lined it forming a protective barrier between pokemon, challenger and the massive amount of spectators, that I was sure not even the strongest of dark types could get past.

I began quickly forming a plan and blowing a loud E not followed by an A and a C commanded Vortumna to go left and straight and to behind a large rock where she stopped and she took the hint and hid behind it. Falkner let out a loud melodic note and the Swablu sent a gust of wind at the rock but it protected the Eevee from being hit and sent backwards.

When the Swablu flew around to the right to get a better angle I blew the same notes and Vortumna dashed behind another rock to her left and the Swablu hovered in the air for a few seconds before trying to fly around from the left side where I blue the same command except replacing the A note with a B note so she would dash back to the boulder to her right. We played this game of Meowth and Rattata for several minutes the Swablu never connecting with Vortumna before she could get behind another rock and in which I made sure the Swablu never was to far behind Vortumna before she dashed to the next rock. Until finally my plan was able to be put into action and the Swablu had to return to the ground to rest. There I blew a loud F note followed by a G note and Vortumna tackled the Swablu to the ground and latched on to its stomach with her teeth puncturing the skin below and causing a dark red liquid to slowly ooze out of the wound, prompting Falkner to recall it before it gets any more injured and I recalled Vortumna, I was more than confident Nyx would be able to handle this.

"My god! What an expert display of strategy by challenger MG." I could barely hear the announcer yell out over the roar of the crowd and I smiled to myself this would hopefully get my name out there. Looking over at Falkner I saw he was ready to release his pokemon so I quickly clicked Nyx's release mechanism while Falkner pressed his. "My god it's a mirror match!" The announcer yelled out as the white light faded revealing two Murkrow staring at each other from across the arena.

I quickly blew a E sharp and Nyx ascended into the sky, Falkners Murkrow following it. I then played a succession o AA when Nyx reached the maze at the top of the arena and Nyx Dodged left around one pillar, flew over a wooden walkway, flew under the next one flew left around the next pillar, over another walkway, left all the way around another pillar and then when I blew a loud F note she flew under Falkners Murkrow who had to turn around quickly narrowly missing colliding into the pillar in front of it. I then blew BB and she flew right around a pillar twice before I blew another E note and she flew over Falkners Murkrow, this time it didn't get quite so lucky and collided heavily the wooden pillar Nyx had just flown around and began free falling in a daze.

Blowing a F note followed by a G note Nyx dived down at the falling Murkrow grasping onto it's chest with her claws she pushed down accelerating the falling Murkrows speed and she leaned forward and pecked the bird hard on the head. About seven seconds before they would impact the ground I played a E note and she jumped off the Murkrow and hovered in the air. Unfortunately only around two seconds before it would have hit the ground Falkners Murkrow was able to right itself and stop most of the momentum against it minimizing the damage it took when it hit the ground. Blowing an F note followed by a G note, Nyx dove at the bird on the ground full speed and Falkners Murkrow flew up to meet it. They clashed into each other Falkners Murkrows beak penetrating through Nyx's Talon and Nyx's talons clawing into the other Murkrow's face. Both went flying sideways through the arena and hurtling to the ground again, though this time while Nyx recovered the other bird did not and it hit the ground hard knocking it unconscious.

I didn't realize how silent the crowd had gotten in our battle until they exploded with the loudest cheers yet, so loud you couldn't even hear the announcer over them. I just stood there in shock, I couldn't believe I had actually won my first gym battle. It wasn't until I heard Falkners voice repeating my name three separate times that I snapped out of my stupor and took in what actually happened. I quickly recalled my bleeding and weakened bird before I heard him call my name again.

"Ahem, we need to go to my office so I can give you my badge. Also ,I'd like a word." His friendly and calm voice shines through the intercom at the challengers booth and I nodded though I wasn't sure he could see it and made my way down from the podium. When I entered the challenger's waiting room I was greeted by a few congratulations but mostly just silence as they all nervously anticipated there own battles with the gym leader. Finally after what felt like an hour but was surely only minutes Falkner appeared and led me to his office.

* * *

"Congratulations on your victory, I've not met many trainers who's pokemon could outfly my own." Falkner said leading me into his office. I nervously nodded and looked around the office in awe, all things considered it was pretty small, a few posters hung on the walls from Falkners own journey documenting his own team and even a few showing off his dad's old team when he was Violet city gym leader and a small desky surrounded by a few chairs in the middle of the room. "Haha, no need to be nervous." Falkner chuckled to himself as he took a seat on one end of his desk and I awkwardly took my seat on the other nearly tipping the sear over as I sat down a little to forcefully. "Do you speak?" He asked chuckling to himself some more and I nervously giggled myself.

"Er yes…?" I half asked half said and he laughed some more.

"Listen normally I'd give the badge publicly but I wanted to share a private word if that's alright?" He asked and I nodded nervously. "You're a special kid, you're like me, or Morty, or Lance if ya catch my drift?" He said and I looked at him confused causing him to my facepalm. "My god we got one that doesn't even know." He said laughing to himself some more and I became even more confused which in turn made Falkner laugh even harder. "Where do you plan on going next kid?" He asked now somewhat serious.

"Azalea." I answered back to him as calmly as I could.

"Following in Golds steps eh?" He asked and I nodded. "Good kid that Gold, just like you didn't know. Pity what happened really." He said and I again looked on confused at him. "Never mind." He said shaking his head. "Listen I don't have much time and I am not allowed to say much, league rules and all. However what I can say is go to Morty as soon as possible alright?" Falkner said hurriedly in a hushed tone "He can tell ya a lot more than I can."

"What do you mean?" I asked still so confused.

"You have something special about you, like most strong trainers or influential trainers in this world. I am not allowed to say how and even if I could I couldn't tell ya, that takes someone like Wil or Morty but what I can say is you're special and to find out how as soon as possible." He continued to explain hurriedly in a hushed tone. "Cut Azalea and Goldenrod and go to Ecruteak, figure this out, trust me." He said then cursed when he looked at his wrist watch. "Were out of time." He said standing up and his entire personality, he stuck out his hand. "Congratulations on winning challenger, may I see your pokedex?"" He said a little to formally leaving me even more confused but I nodded and handed it to him. He swiped a metallic card through it one of eight black sockets I had not noticed before lit up. "Your badge has been uploaded to your pokedex, you may leave now."

What he said left me questioning my entire plan of travel and I'd have to sit down and think about what he said. One thing was for certain though, I had won my first badge and I couldn't be happier.

* * *

And our MC won her first gym battle Wahoo! If you're wondering the code it was pretty simple for this first battle.

A=left

B=Right

C=Forward

D=Back

E= up for Nyx, Hide for Vortumna

F=Up for Nyx, Attack for Vortumna

G=Attack for Nyx.

Also if you're wondering how Nyx could outfly a trained gym leaders pokemon. Remember that the MC specifically chose Nyx out of all the other Murkrow for her speed, agility and intelligence, over power which came into play here.

Anyways thanks for reading and you all have a good day!


	7. Special Episode 1: The League

Lance sat in a chair within his private quarters in the indigo plateau and silently viewed his computer. On it was the previous day's gym matches from all over Kanjo. He silently watched skipping over most matches when he already could tell they would lose and even some that would win as he knew they would never make it much farther. However, he made very careful notes upon the trainers that would have serious potential and to follow each one's career respectively… So he could prepare…

_Trainer: Quail. Breeding connection, Rich. Threats Charizard, Ariados, Mamoswine. Six badger. Son of AP. Threat level six out of ten_

_Trainer: Allen. Adaptable. Threats, Altaria, Shelgon, Magneton, Swellos. Four Badger, Sis of C. May need to grant a visa to Sinnoh or Unova for Magnezone. Threat level eight out of ten._

_Trainer: Lola. Strategic. Resourceful. No Notable threats. One Badger, Daughter of none. Threat level unknown, further research needed._

_Trainer MG. Unpredictable, Resourceful, Strategic. Threats, Possible Vaporeon, Sylveon, Umbreon, Espeon, Murkrow. One Badger. Daughter of an unknown, possibly AR. Threat level unknown, further research needed._

_Trainer. Tim. Strategic, Resourceful, Adaptable, Beloved, Well Travelled, Well trained. Threats, Electrivire, A-Raichu, A-Ninetails, Gardevoir, Slaking, Gyarados, Kabutops, Orangaru, Houndoom, Magnezone, Steelix, Gengar, Ditto. Twenty four badger, three-time league winner. Threat level nine out of ten (Note not ten out of ten due to no political desire.)_

After finishing marking down the last trainer's threat level, Lance stood up and yawned while he stretched. Then he made his way down from his living quarters within the league to the kitchen, where he saw Karen enjoying a coffee and her morning paper and Bruno and Koga meditating off in the corner, while Wil like usual was nowhere to be found.

"Morning, left you some coffee in the pot," Karen said as Lance walked through the door and he just nodded thanks at her as he poured a cup of coffee then sat down.

"So what's on the agenda today?" Lance asked after taking a sip of coffee.

"Well we have three challengers today, none of which seem like they'll make it past Wil. Bruno needs to meet with some representatives from the fighting dojo, make up some publicity for last week when he killed half that poor Tommy kids pokemon. Koga will be doing that little favor you asked of him and that'll take care of our coroner problem from a couple of weeks ago" She said listing out the tasks before them.

"It's amazing what people will do for money." Koga chimed in from the corner before going back to meditating. 

"Good, that'll stop the questions and I do hate questions," Lance said smiling to himself. "And you Karen?" He asked.

"I will be getting information from my little brothers and sisters around Kanjo. It's that time of the month." She said and then giggles to herself at the immature joke making Lance scoff. "Oh boo hoo Mr serious. Anyways is there anything you wanted me to learn about." She asked and just like every other month Lance produced his list of names and handed it to her, she scanned it up and squealed when she saw the fourth name down. "Ooooh another possible little sister, can I keep her Lance? Can I?" She asked enthusiastically.

"Wait a moment." Lance said stopping her in her tracks. "I only suspect because she's good with a dark type, She could be anything!" He said and watched Karens face drop. "But yes if she is one you can keep her." He said and hid a smile as he watched Karen jump around in excitement.

"Now come on we have work to do," Lance said standing up and walking out of the room, leaving a warm undrunken coffee behind him.

* * *

Hey guys, sorry for the wait between updates and that my first update back is such a small one. I have been going through an incredibly hard time lately mentally and emotionally and it pretty much sapped any and all motive I had to write. However, I've finally snapped out of it and feel like I can properly continue this story. Don't worry I'm already halfway done my next chapter and should have it out by next week.

Anyways about this chapter, dropped lots of foreshadowing and preparations for the future. I'll be honest. Though it's short, this might be among the most important chapters in the entire story. Until next week, I'll see ya later!


	8. Wolf In Sheeps Clothing

I wanted to try and avoid the journalists that typically flock to these things especially after a win. Even if most people didn't pay attention to first wins, I wanted to try and keep myself on the low down as long as possible. So I snuck through the back door of the gym and stealthily made my way to the pokecenter as quickly as I could. Along the way, I checked my dex and saw I had a message from both Cale and Robin.

" _Good job little one, I knew there was something special about you when I met you and to beat a gym leader on your first try, wow! Let me know if you need any new pokemon alright I can probably swing you a twenty percent discount off any bred pokemon or eggs, thirty-five if ya let me breed that little Murkrow of yours when she comes of age!_

\- Breeder Cale

_Congrats.-Trainer Robin_

I giggled to myself quietly at the contrast of the two messages I received and then smiled even longer at the fact that I even received any messages and then hummed a little tune to myself as I made the journey back to the pokecenter. When I got there I handed my pokeballs over to the nurse who informed me it'd take about an hour for them to be up to health. So I headed up to my room and took an extra long shower as I would never take that for granted again especially since I wouldn't have access to another one for a long time. Then I got dressed into some simple cargo pants and a bulky coat and made my way downstairs to pick up my pokemon. When I arrived I found I still had about thirty minutes left, so I sat down with a piece of paper and began to make a list of pros and cons for going to Ecruteak first or not.

* * *

_Pros:_

_Faster to obtain three badges in a year._

_Figure out the big secret._

_Nyx is effective against Morty._

_More time to train and prepare._

_Chances for some interesting and synergetic new teammates earlier._

_Get to see Brass and Burned tower earlier and have time for a history lesson._

_Cons:_

_Less natural growth_

_Less time spent amongst nature._

_Less overall pokemon encounters._

_Nyx is good against Bugsy_

I checked and double checked the list. The biggest outliers for me were the fact that I wouldn't have as much natural growth and that I wouldn't know this big secret that Falkner was talking about until much later. I decided ultimately on taking my original route. It was my plan and I was gonna stick to my plan no matter what. After all, I spent so much time planning it, it would be a waste not to use it and I had made it near foolproof, so I would stick with my plan.

After making the decision I checked the time and saw that Vortumna and Nyx should be ready so I went over to the counter and after some awkward small talk with the nurse I had them ready to go on my belt. I then checked and double checked my supplies and after noticing I was running a little low on potions and rectifying the issue I headed up to my room and gathered the rest of my belongings and then checked out of the pokecenter.

After leaving the center I made my way out of the city to route thirty-two and decided to bypass the Ruins of Alph. As much I loved history, I had wasted enough time in and around Violet city and there would be other more interesting wonders to see. Not to mention I could always come back and check them out after I had completed year-long quest from the professor. Along the way, I battled a couple other no badge trainers and Nyx and Vortumna swept the floor with them easily, I was proud of my little monsters. After that, I headed off the usual path and into the forest where I would hopefully find some privacy and good wilds to fight. By the time it began to turn dark we had cleared just over twenty out of the thousand two hundred kilometer trek despite our late start and Nyx had only tried to escape twice. So overall it was a good day and as we set a fire, ate a meal and went to bed, I could barely contain my excitement for the next day.

* * *

I was rudely awoken the following morning by the rain pouring down upon my face. I grumbled and cursed at the fact that I had not yet bought a tent and deciding I wouldn`t get any more sleep, I rolled up my sleeping bag and placed it within my backpack hoping to keep it as dry as possible. I then woke up Vortumna and then to nobody`s surprise Nyx was gone and so I recalled her and released her to an angry squawk which made me smile and then the three of us began our trek forward.

For the first three hours of the morning nothing too interesting happened, Nyx found a couple small Caterpies hiding from the rain in a tree trunk and promptly gobbled them up and Vortumna once tripped and fell in the mud and then adorably walked around in a huff at her pristine fur is all matted and dirty. So we made a detour to a local stream where we could wash her off and eat breakfast which was one thing Nyx would excitedly stick around for. It was here that the first really interesting thing happened. A lone Wooper waddled it's way past us with an almost human grin upon its face and not a care in the world. I thought it'd be decent experience in fighting a type we were not used to yet and so had Vortumna tackle it which sent it sprawling. However, it simply got up and continued it's waddle as if nothing happened at all and all three members of my party sat there stunned. I order Nyx to claw at it and she landed atop it clawing and pecking it while it simply continued walking, prompting Nyx to stop and fly back to me with a confused and unsure look. I decided then that I wanted the water and ground type, as while not a competitive threat, I knew they could tank hits with some of the best of them. So I tossed a pokeball at the Wooper and it immediately broke free and continued it's careless waddle downstream.

I grimaced and ran after it ordering Vortumna to tackle it once more and she sent it sprawling and then following my orders she pinned it down. Instead of struggling it simply lie there smiling up at Vortumna. Then it spat a glob of water at her, surprising the Eevee and knocking her off it. After that, the Wooper simply rolled over and despite being armless brought itself to its feet and then simply continued it's waddle down the stream like nothing ever happened. I smiled and threw another Pokeball at it and when it broke free I laughed and bid it farewell and good luck on its travel deciding that nothing would ever stop that Wooper from whatever it was gonna do. Instead, I ate my breakfast, sharing some with Nyx and Vortumna before packing up my gear and leaving. The memory of the little Wooper continuously marching forward one I knew would always be a pleasant one for the remainder of my life.

After that we traveled for another few hours, only stopping for a quick lunch and to battle a couple wilds that crossed our path. At around fourish, we stumbled upon a rather large Ekans that tried to coil around and subdue Vortumna, but a quick boot from me and a pokeball tossed took care of the problem and thus I had caught myself an Ekans. I decided to name him Naga after the serpentine gods of human lore and when I released him he made an immediate lunge for Vortumna causing me to boot him once more, after that he got the message. I then leaned down and checked up on him, healing the injuries that I had inflicted upon him and as a reward, he proceeded to lunge at me sinking one of his fangs into me and prompting me to boot him once more and then ordering Nyx and Vortumna instead to simply kill him instead. I didn't have the time or the patience to put up with this bullshit especially when that bite really hurt. They followed the order immediately and soon the snake was dead and Nyx had a new meal.

I quickly checked the wound and saw that while it was bleeding, it was only surface level and ultimately shallow. I sighed and checked my pokedex to see how dangerous Ekans venom was and it showed that it typically took over a half hour to manifest and wouldn't kill the average healthy person. Which made no sense to me as, within a couple of minutes, I immediately fell over dizzy and vomited up my stomach's contents all over myself. When I checked the wound I could see a nasty green color forming around it. In between puking and cursing the faulty information within the pokedex I reached into my bag and pulled out the standard catch-all poison antidote and chugged half the bottle, pouring the rest onto my leg and screamed out in pain. I continued to vomit every five minutes for the next half hour before finally beginning to feel better. I reached into my bag and ripped off a sleeve from one of my shirts, hating my own stupidity in not buying bandages, I tied the piece of the shirt around my leg and then prepared my bed and a fire, deciding that I felt way too sick to continue traveling the rest of the night. So I made a quick dinner which I proceeded to quickly vomit back up and then deciding not to try my luck again I gave the rest to Nyx and went to sleep.

* * *

The next day I felt fine and travelled as normal and then for the next few days nothing beyond a few scrapes and injuries and one close call with another much smaller Ekans we continued traveling always on the lookout for a new and interesting pokemon to catch and train as after the Ekans incident I had decided not to catch anything I wasn't certain I didn't wanna train. There was one incident in which we found a small group of Pineco up in the trees and skirted cautiously around them as Pineco typically had a habit of dropping down and exploding when they are threatened.

Then after the ninth day of travel, we found our next team member. I could feel my skin begin to tingle and my hair begin to stand up on its ends. It meant there was a static charge in the air and that meant an Electric type. One of the most useful types there is mainly for its ability to destroy water and flying types which most expert trainers had at least one of. I sent Nyx out forward to scout for the source and she quickly guided me to a small meadow clearing within the forest, where I found a flock of Mareep.

Mareep is an interesting pokemon, native to Sinnoh and first brought over during the early colonial days by farmers traveling to Kanjo in hopes of striking it big and becoming rich. The electric sheep quickly found a home within the region and with tons of grass and open fields they exploded in population. Their wool makes over sixty percent of all clothing in the Kanjo region and they make up more than thirty percent of the regions meat supply, they were a true boon to the people of this land. Of course, with such a population explosion, some Mareep escaped their farms and were never found, and also exploded in population. Most were culled as they ate the food that would normally go to the native Stantler, Deerling and Girafarig populations, causing the native population to head into a steady decline. Eventually, over the years, native predators such as Poochyena evolved into pokemon like Electrike to combat the Mareeps natural defense and the ecosystem balanced itself out. However, Route thirty-two Johto to this day still holds the highest wild Mareep population in the world and I was lucky enough to stumble upon a flock of them.

So I began formulating a plan to snag one of them, obviously, Nyx was out due to obvious reasons, so it was up to me and Vortumna. I noticed there was twelve of them and we were directly behind the electric sheep, and ordered Vortumna to sneak through the forest to the side of them and when I gave the signal to dash out at them as I would be waiting on the other side. I then snuck over to my side and quickly counted down from ten, eyeing the sheep warily. Then I yelled now and they were all alert. I could see my brown fox darting at them and I saw them scatter in a bunch of different directions, two coming in my direction, I quickly hurled a pokeball at the more woolen covered of the two as wild Mareep have no way of shearing themselves, so when they become to covered in wool to move they evolve and shed their fur into there relatively wool-free second form of Flaffy. I nailed the Mareep with the pokeball and it disappeared in a flash of red light, causing the mareep beside it to wail and run in another direction and luckily for me the Mareep didn't reappear, meaning I had just caught the third member of my team.

I was ecstatic and couldn't wait to meet the third member of my team, but first I'd have to head somewhere less in the open, so I made my way back into the forest and set up an early camp with one thought in my head, what should I name it?

* * *

Hey guys, thanks for all the support, follows and favorites last week, it means a lot. Now as for the update I was pretty satisfied with it, some nice character interaction, some foreshadowing and a hell of a lot of world-building, makes me actually proud to do this update. Not much else to say this time except thanks for reading and have a nice day!


	9. Killer Queen

The very first thing I did was find a nice clearing away from where we caught the Mareep, not wanting to disturb the rest of its flock any more than I had to. I set up camp and then made sure Vortumna was by my side while Nyx was safely tucked away in her pokeball before letting out the electric sheep. When it was released it let out a startled bleep and sent a lightning bolt flying randomly and luckily way over my head and then stood there in shock and fear. I could make out some things about it now, first off it was distinctly male, which was interesting as I had not yet had a male pokemon on my team. Second was that its coat was very thick meaning it was most likely only a week or two away from evolving if left unsheared, while it would ultimately lose some starting power evolving naturally instead of through battling, I would much rather take the Flaaffy's immediate power and make up for it with harsh training later, speaking of which I had been forgoing my drills in return for more traveling time which I would not do from now on.

I slowly approached the Mareep, with some trail mix I had bought as a traveling snack for the road, being very careful not to startle the poor sheep. Cupping the food in my hand I placed it in front of the Mareep which hesitantly sniffed at it and then deeming it was okay ate it out of my hand. I smiled and stroked the creatures back and was greeted by a small static electric shock which made me jump back a little startled but then I went back and scratched the sheep's chin, causing it to bleed out happily and make me smile. I was glad I was not gonna have nearly as much trouble with it as I was still having with Nyx. I decided on calling him Pan, after some old legendary human god that looked like a goat and a goat, was close enough in my mind.

I began slowly teaching Pan his own name, feeding him whenever he responded to his own name and soon enough he got it, then I released Nyx and introduced him to the team. He was very hesitant around Vortumna for the first bit but had no problem with my annoying little bird, however, he got over it after he realized Vortumna wasn't gonna harm him and soon enough was happily running around chasing him like two Growlithe pups. Finally, I ended it by calling him and was happy he responded immediately and then began teaching him basic commands and of course He didn't respond at all causing Nyx to let out a shrill squawk that I could only interpret as laughing at me. After another hours work, I got him responding to the basic commands of dodging and shocking things, after another I got him to tackle things and go where I wanted him to. After another two I got him responding to all the commands on my harmonica, surprised how easy he took to learning that as Vortumna had a lot more trouble.

After that, it was time for bed, so I set up a fire and crawled into my sleeping bag and exhausted at the days work passed out almost immediately.

The next day I woke up to the sun glaring in my face and cursed myself for sleeping in so late, I looked around and of course, Nyx was missing so I did the usual recall and release and she didn't even get angry when she appeared before me this time. Just let another squawk of what I now recognized as laughter and perched herself upon the trees above us. I then woke up Vortumna with all the movement and she was up and playful in no time prompting me to reach down and scratch behind her ears, earning me a happy mewl. Then I went over and gently woke up Pan who freaked out and let loose a lightning bolt near me, terrifying me but he soon enough apologized by rubbing up against me. That day proceeded as most of the others had, simply walking through the forest, fighting any wild creatures that dare challenge my fearsome team of monsters, and sheep… We had an early camp again to start running drills once more, and I began incorporating Nyx and Vortumna in Pan's training. Teaching him to be more accurate with his lightning bolts, and to hit moving targets more easily. I also had the three of the run or in Nyx's case fly obstacle courses as I knew it would make them much more agile and increase their stamina. In the case of Pan, I knew that if he kept running around and got faster with the weight of his fleece around him when he did eventually evolve into something without that weight he'd be a lot faster and physically stronger than most Flaffy, even if his electric attacks would be weaker.

The next few days proceeded exactly the same, wake up, travel, drills, sleep, only stopping for meals or to battle some wilds. On the sixteenth day of travel, I realized I was completely and utterly lost and began making my way to where I thought the main road was. On the twenty-second day, I hit the main road and realized I was about halfway to Union cave putting me about three days behind schedule. I took the main road for the next few days and battled quite a few trainers, easily pocketing most of their sweet earnings, though a four badger waiting to pick on easy trainers, wiped the floor with me with only one of his pokemon, a Shellgon which put me back a few hours as I waited for my pokemon to heal.

On the twenty-sixth day, Pan evolved. I woke up in the middle of the night to a very bright flash of white light, very grumpy I may add. I watched the bright light surrounded the Mareep and saw as it's fleece fell off of it in clumps and how its bones slowly morphed and changed, it's hind legs changing from hoofs to toed skin, and it's forelegs morphing into fingered hands and it forcing itself upright. Until finally the minute's long transformation was complete and a sleepy pink furred Flaaffy stood before me. I quickly walked over and picked up all the fur that had fallen off of him and stuffed it in my bag, knowing I could sell it for a nice price at the next town. After that bit of excitement, we continued forward on the road, battling any and all trainers we could find until on day thirty we came into the small town of Marigold.

* * *

 

Marigold, originally just a small outpost containing a pokemon center for traveling trainers before there expedition into Union Cave. It was getting enough traffic due to an abundance of travelers traveling from Violet city to Azalea or from the large sea it was next too, that eventually a pokemart was opened up there and a port to connecting it to the rest of the seafaring cities within Johto. After that, it was only a matter of time before people constructed houses around it and it became a town for sailors to live in. When a few large veins of iron and copper were found, well then it became a mining town for those who hoped to strike it big. After that the rest was history and now it found itself a small bustling community filled to the brim with sailors and miners alike and had a steady income from the traveling trainers constantly coming and going all the time on their journeys. I was just gonna be the next of an endless amount of trainers to come through here for a hot meal, a nice bed and to stock up on supplies.

However, when I arrived I heard there was an amateur tourney being held for the one to two badge bracket. Seeing my chance at proving my worth and perhaps also earning some extra spending money for myself I switched directions from the pokecenter to where I was being told it was held. After around ten minutes I found myself at a large stadium at the edge of town and was surprised I missed it when I came in. I walked in and over to the reception where women in a tight fitting and slightly overly suggesting dress sat.

"Um, Hello. I was uh wondering if I could sign up for the tournament?" I asked nervous and unsure of what exactly to do.

"Mhmm, and may I see your trainer card or pokedex please?" She asked formal and polite which eased some of my own built up tension.

"Oh um yes, right here!" I managed to stammer out as I pulled my pokedex out of my bag and handed it over to her.

"Hmm alright, Trainer MG, one badge, registered team members, one Murkrow, one Eevee and One Flaffy." She said and I nodded along with everything she said. "Alright, the tournament is held every Sunday, so you are registered for three days from now. It'll be your standard competitive format, you can use up to six pokemon, no items, unlimited switches and till either pokemon faints or is killed. Your first match will be at nine o'clock in the morning, do not be late or you will be disqualified." She spouted out blandly and I nodded along taking in all the information I could. "Have yourself a wonderful day and see you Sunday." She said with false cheer and I nodded and left the stadium.

Alright, that left me two and a half days to train if you counted whatever daylight was left in the current day. If that was the case if I ran drills for fourteen hours from eight am to ten pm and slept as soon as we finished, only stopping for meal breaks, then I was certain I could get to the level where I could take on any two badgers that entered the tournament. So I made my way to the pokecenter to heal up my team and then headed out to the wilderness to train.

Once I found myself a nice clearing, I released my team and set up the most basic drills. I set up a long line of rocks like cones in steadily closer proximity to each other and had Pan and Vortumna continuously weave in and out of them if they hit one they'd have to restart from the beginning. Meanwhile, I had Nyx, fly around the clearing weaving in and out of trees and timed her. If she completed it faster than the last go, she would get rewarded with a treat, if she got a close time while weaving through more trees than the last time, she would be rewarded with a treat. This is how the first four hours, of each day, would go. Then we would stop for lunch, I'd recall them and take them to the pokecenter where they would heal their exhaustion and then we'd head back out to the clearing.

The next two hours were worked on powering up and learning new attacks. Nyx began learning how to manifest her element and exploding it outwards in a large pulse of energy. All it could do at this point was push me back about a meter and tickle, though it seemed to do a little damage to Pan and Vortumna, it was a start! Though she found it very amusing anytime I wasn't paying attention to her to sneak up and startle me with it. Nyx also helped Vortumna to manifest the element of darkness whenever she bit into something and that made much more steady progress than Nyx's dark pulse. Pan just worked on strengthening his electric attacks, and it was here I began to curse that I had not waited to shear and train him before he evolved, as he still could not produce anything more than a thundershock.

The next four hours were used to build up endurance, I had my pokemon spar. For the most part, Pan won even despite being weak for him species, he was still an evolved pokemon and that would still make him more powerful than my other two, especially since Nyx was weak to electricity. I eventually began having both Nyx and Vortumna take on Pan at once and that was more fair, skewing closet to a forty, sixty percent win ratio for Pan, though it did its job and they all slowly began getting tougher, Nyx being able to take three shocks instead of two and Pan being able to take a lot more tackles, bites, and pecks.

The last two hours were used to learn more complex commands with the harmonica. Though it took a while, I could eventually get them to dodge in more than just the basic four directions and even use different attacks based on what key or note I played.

I was proud of my little team and after two and a half days of this training when I woke up the morning of the tournament, I was confident that I could take it by storm.

* * *

 

I walked into the stadium at eight thirty, wanting to be early and not risk disqualification. I checked in with the nurse who informed me where the waiting rooms were and I made my way there. I checked the schedule and saw that it was only an eight-person tournament. Highest seeded trainers fought the lowest seeded trainers, that I would be fighting a two badger by the name of Jose Benedicto, who had a near perfect record on his journey so far, only losing a single pokemon to a gym leader. He along with the two badgers currently battling were the favorites to win, and I could see that there were four to one odds on him beating me. I guess I would just have to make some people disappointed then.

I waited patiently until the battle before me was finished and I was called up for my turn. I took a couple calming deep breaths and then made my way to my podium.

"GOOOOOOODDDD EVENING EVERRRYYYBODY!" I heard a loud voice announce to the entire stadium and I was surprised that it sounded very similar to the Violet gym's announcer. "Welcome to our weekly amateur and junior tournament." He said and then went on to explain the rules. "Today we have a special treat, Marigolds own Jose Benedicto." He announced to the crowd and I cursed, I didn't know he was a local. "And on this side w,e have the master of Murkrow, Trainer MG." He announced and I was surprised at the loud cheer I got in response, I guess people liked my battle against Falkner more than I thought they did. "MG are you ready?" the announcer asked and I nodded. "Jose are you ready?" He asked and Jose gave him a confident thumbs up. "Then begin!"

I pressed the release button, on Nyx's pokeball sending her flying out. She was my best scout and I needed to test him. Across from my side exploded out a bipedal fox holding two spoons and I couldn't help but grin, a psychic type was pretty much blocked by Nyx's natural element. I blew a high A note and Nyx took off to the sky, though to my disdain Jose recalled his Kadabra and replaced it with beige-ish cone-shaped pokemon. An ice type named Snorunt.

I quickly recalled Nyx and replaced her with Vortumna and then blew an F key, and Vortumna went charging towards his Snorunt.

"Ako." He said and the Snorunt blew a shard of ice straight at Vortumna, causing me to blow an E sharp and Vortumna to respond in turn to leap over the shard and then continue and charge into the cone-like creature sending it sprawling backward. I blew an F-minor and Vortumna performed a quick attack, catching it off guard and sending it flying once more as it tried to get up. That did the trick and the Snorunts already low defense crumbled causing it to collapse and me to jump up in joy. I was off to a good start.

"Is that all you got? A tackling Eevee." I heard Jose called out trying to throw me off guard.

"A tackling Eevee that you couldn't even hit," I responded without a beat, all worried or anxiety was forgotten and just caught up in the moment of it all.

"Let's see it tackle this." He said and a noxious ball of gas and spirit to appear before him. A Gastly, a ghost type pokemon which normally would be good against a normal type like Vortumna, however, due to her recent training with Nyx and the fact that the Gastly was probably inexperienced that it didn't have any attacks that could harm Vortumna, I was sure I was fine.

"I don't need to tackle it," I said and then blew an F note, causing Vortumna to charge towards the Gastly.

"Ako." I heard him repeat and saw the Gastly form a large ball of shadow which he launched and Vortumna and I was happy to see had no effect. I guessed Ako meant some form of ranged attack then.

"What's the matter?" I asked at his obvious frustration. "Doesn't an expert trainer like you know that spiritual energy can't affect normal types?" I talked back causing him to grow even angrier. I then blew an E sharp followed by an F sharp and Vortumna leapt into the air sinking her dark infused teeth into the Gastly and tearing a large chunk out of it, leaving gas and noxious fumes to pour out of the wound at a dangerous rate and it to deflate and collapse to the ground, causing me to grin wildly. I checked the screen and saw he only had two remaining pokemon left.

He recalled his Gastly and replaced it with a small blue pokemon with four spindly legs that seemed to cause it to skate around the ground a bug-water type named Surskit. I quickly recalled Vortumna and replaced her with Nyx, know use revealing Pan if I didn't have to. To my great disappointment, he quickly recalled the Surskit and then pressed the surrender button on his console. Though my disappointment was quickly replaced by joy as I realized I had won and I quickly jumped up and down in glee as I recalled Nyx.

After that my pokemon were taken away for healing and I was left looking up my other opponent's battles. The other three battles went off according to the odds. The other highly seeded trainer destroyed his opponent with just a Bayleef and didn't switch at all and then beat his other opponent with only a Cacnea making his way into the finals. My next opponent another one badger barely scraped by beating his opponent with one pokemon left on the verge of fainting. And in the next battle, I was greeted to thunderous applause but quickly made short work of him with just Vortumna, leaving just me and the favorite to win.

* * *

 

While I healed my pokemon I was surprised to see that there was only two to one odds on my next battle for my opponent. I was even more surprised when said opponent, approached me before the battle.

 

"Hello, MG is it?" He said extending his hand.

"Um yeah, that's what they call me," I muttered out nervously shaking his hand causing him to chuckle lightly.

"Pleasure to meet ya, I'm Zach." He said as we parted hands. "Just wanted to give ya props, I was a big fan of your battle against Falkner." He said causing my face to go Scarlette.

"You saw that?" I asked a giggle emerging from my mouth from nerves.

"Yeah it was brilliant, and I'm glad ya took down Jose a peg, guys a bit of a prick," Zach said admiringly.

"Well uh, thanks," I said blushing even more furiously.

"Anyways I just wanted to wish ya best of luck and no hard feelings." He said and I nodded back at him. "Cool see ya in the stadium." He said and I just nodded back, dumb struck as he left.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." I admonished myself as he left. "Stupid little stupid girl;" I muttering as I made my way to the healing stand and picked up my pokemon and then made my way to the podium.

After the announcer made his usual introductions, both I and Zach released our pokemon, I released Vortumna and he released his Bayleef. I quickly blew an F note and Vorutmna began to charge. To my surprise, Zach simply told his Bayleef to tackle, no code or nothing. I blew an A note followed by an F note and then Vortumna dodged to the side and tackled the Bayleef barely even moving it.

"Throw it." I heard Zach say and before I could make a move his Bayleef picked up Vortumna with its vines and threw her. As soon as she got up I recalled her and replaced her with Nyx. It was time to show them why they called me MG.

I blew a high A note and Nyx took off towards the skies, Zachs Bayleef tried throwing a few leaves at her but with her recent training she dodged them with ease, I blew a low A note and she dropped down in altitude and then I followed it up with a G note and she collided right into the Bayleef with her wing severing one of its vines and eliciting a cry of pain. I called her back up and then repeated the process a couple of times before the Bayleef went down for good and he recalled it.

"Nice KO." He said releasing his Cacnea, and I quickly recalled Nyx replacing her with Vortumna. I saw he only had two pokemon left and wondered what his other one was as I was sure he wondered what mine was. "Impale it." I heard him yell and I froze in shock at the brutality of the command before blowing a b note all too late and watched as Vortumna`s Leg was impaled into the ground by a long needle. I heard her scream out in pain as she ripped it free and limped and I horrified, recalled her and replaced her with Nyx, angry at myself for my late reaction time.

"Impale it." I heard him again say and I reacted quicker this time ready for it, blowing a high A note causing Nyx to take to the sky. I quickly blew a series of B and C notes causing Nyx to roll left and right out of the way as more needles were shot at her, before blowing a D followed by a G minor and then an a. Nyx swooped down and picked up the Cactus pokemon cawing in pain but following orders and carrying it high into the air. "Needle arm." I heard Zach yell and saw the Cacnea swing one of his arms in a wide arc into Nyx's the side of Nyx's face ripping it wide open. She let out a squawk of pain but still held on. I quickly blew a G minor and she released the Cacnea from thirty feet up in the air and the entire stadium went silent as we all watched it fall downwards and be split into two as it collided with a rock, it died instantly.

"Zach I'm sorry-" I began but was cut off abruptly.

"No hard feelings right?" He said but I could hear the anger and sadness in his voice and I was terrified. He released a third pokemon, a large dinosaur that was half tree and seemed to have bananas hanging from its chin. A Tropius, and something that could take on Nyx in the air. I quickly recalled my bleeding bird and let out Pan, this was it, if Pan couldn't beat it I knew he'd wipe the floor with my remaining weakened team members.

The Tropius came at me faster than I thought it would and sent Pan sprawling, I quickly breathed out a sigh of relief though as I saw that what remained of his fleece, held a static charged that paralyzed and immobilized the giant dinosaur. I blew an F sharp and held it and Pan unleashed every single last bit of electricity that he held within him into the dinosaur and I watched as it collapsed to ground unconscious. I couldn't believe it, I had won and as I jumped for joy, fist pumped in the air the stadium exploded in noise and cheers. I had won and everybody liked a good underdog story.

"Good match." I heard a broken voice mutter before me and suddenly the joy left me just like that and I remembered in that moment, I was a killer…


	10. No Rest For The Wicked.

Happy new years everyone, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did making it, as even though it took a bit to come out, I had a lot of fun writing and rewriting it a few times. If you're wondering about the character inconsistency of MG hating herself for killing a pokemon and yet earlier letting Nyx kill and eat tons of bugs. Well, it's because she isn't disgusted with killing a pokemon, that's just nature. No, she's disgusted with killing another trainers pokemon. After all, her closest and only real friends in this world are her pokemon and she hates the fact that she was the one to take that away from someone else.

Also if you're wondering why there were no authors note in the last chapter and it's at the top of this chapter, it's because I hate ruining the end of a serious chapter with me talking so from now on all AN's will be at the top. Cheers, I'll see ya later and here's to 2019!

* * *

_I was a killer…_

That's all I could think about after that match. Sure it was Nyx that killed that Cacnea but I gave the order, I killed it, I was a killer...

Even as I made my way to the center of the arena, and claimed the fifteen hundred dollars and moonstone prize, I couldn't really celebrate, as all I could do was keep on replaying the horrific pop and squelch sound the Cacnea made as it was split in half. In a trance I just found myself working through the motions as the stadium cheered and roared, the sadness and anger in Zach's voice mixed into that horrific scene and I could feel my own heart begin to race and pound faster and faster. I couldn't take this, my chest felt like it was gonna explode and my body began to shake. I needed to get out of there, I needed to get out now, everyone one was looking at me, looking at a killer and they knew it too. So I ran.

I ran as fast as I possibly could before the announcer finished his final words or a single spectator left the stadium, I did. I ran out the stadium doors and just kept running, I didn't stop at a pokecenter, I didn't stop at the pokemart to resupply, I didn't plan out anything at all, I just knew I had to keep running and so I did. I ran and I ran and I ran and I just kept running. When I hit forest I kept on running, and it wasn't until I nearly collapsed that I finally stopped. Only then alone in the forest did my heart stop pounding and my body stops shaking and yet the scene kept replaying anyways and I collapsed to the ground and began to sob. I don't know how long I was out there for, nor how long it took them to come and find me but when they did I was still crying, even as I was brought back to town and to the pokecenter. Even as the nurses checked me over to make sure nothing was wrong physically and as they took my pokemon away for healing I kept sobbing and replaying that scene, over and over again and I just kept thinking that one thought… I was a killer. Eventually, after my pokemon were healed they took me up to my room and I collapsed in bed and still, I cried.

I don't remember when I fell asleep, I just remember it took a long time and that I was plagued by nightmares of that exact scene the entire night.

* * *

_I was a killer…_

That was my only thought as I woke up and as I got ready for the day the Cacneas death kept replaying through my mind over and over again. Today though I didn't cry or shake, today I just felt an empty pit inside myself, like no emotions could ever touch me again. I hadn't felt this way since I was seven years old and my mother beat me for asking if I could stay and watch television with her and my dad. Since before I had found my passion for pokemon battling and I hated feeling this way, feeling so… Empty.

Yet despite all that I continued my motions, I had a deadline to hit and I was already behind. So I made my way out of the center and to the Pokemart. I stocked up on potions, antidotes, a few ropes and some climbing equipment, pokeballs and of course lots and lots of food. I decided to save the rest of my winnings from my tourney so I could hopefully afford some nice TMs later, mainly I just wanted to get out of Marigold. Then I made my way out the main route opting not to go through the wild this time.

I made great time, reaching Union cave only an hour after leaving Marigold town and encountered no trainers along the way. However, Union cave was what I was truly scared about. See, statistics show the cave ventures are responsible for sixty-three percent of all trainer deaths in the wild. The rough and dark terrain meaning nearly anyone can fall and knock themselves out easily, with little other people climbing or traversing the same way as each other, a person will rarely get the medical attention they need. Combine the resultant concussion, with the dark and rough ground and that person, will probably never find there way out and starve to death. The other reason they're so dangerous is that caves often are home to the most amount of major or higher threats. Often containing Ursaring dens, Geodude and it's exploding family, the massive and town destroying Onix family, Rhyhorn and Rhydon and sometimes even Rhyperior and of course, caves are the only place in which dragons make themselves home. It often takes an Elite or ex-champion to patrol the caves often and some places like Mt. Silver or Mt. Mortar are so completely infested by high-level threats that even the league has given up on patrolling them and instead simply works to keep them from spilling out into other cities and towns. Luckily for me, Union Cave in one of the safest and most traveled caves in the entire region and anything even remotely dangerous or cool is often caught immediately when found. As I made my way in, I wasn't gonna let my guard down, I had read to many horror stories and statistics to let myself do that, Besides I could handle this… I was a killer.

* * *

My first response to entering the cave was to simply gasp in awe! I couldn't believe how big the opening cavern was. It much has stretched high enough to fit a fully grown Steelix and was wide enough to fit at least three fully grown Wailord. My second thought when I entered the cave was immediate dread as caves this big wasn't made naturally and I began to freak out being stuck in the dark with whatever made this possibly digging around directly below me. Then I took a few calming breaths and flipped on my flashlight, I hated the dark.

I made my way forward through the cave, I kept Pan in his pokeball as he'd be very useless against the multitude of rock and ground types within this cave and I preferred to keep him safe, besides Nyx seemed to have near perfect vision in here anyways and she was using it in spades to harass the local Rattata and Paras that live in these caves. However, when she quickly snatched one up I bent over and empties my breakfasts contents all over the cave, it reminded me too much of the fucking Cacnea.

Not trusting myself not to vomit again, I forewent refilling my stomach and instead just continued forward where the map told me too and soon enough my hesitation swiftly changed to boredom and boredom to depression as I began continuously replaying that scene through my head again and wondering what I could have done differently. I could have commanded Nyx to not drop him on a rock but we hadn't trained that as a possibility and she didn't know where to drop someone. I could have recalled her when that needle ripped through her face but the Cacnea would have still dropped. I didn't know what I could've done but I wished I had done whatever it was.

Cursing I realized in my own pity I hadn't even looked over Nyx yet, I couldn't let myself get sloppy like that. So after stopping and a quick whistle she reluctantly came flying over and situated herself on my shoulder and I began examining her face. A long jagged scar ran down along the ride side of her face, right below the right side of her eye and down below her beak. An inch higher and she would have lost that eye, for the first time I was not sad but angry and glad we killed the Cacnea. That anger quickly turned into disgust at myself for thinking such a thing and I vomited again causing Nyx to fly off in a huff. Then noticing Vortumna still limping I got down on one knee and whistled for Vortumna to come and she slowly made her way to me an obvious limp in her right foreleg. I saw her try to hide it like a scorned child would when she came over to me, causing me to smile at my adorable little starter. I started by picking up her leg and she yelped and whined which caused a sad pang in my heart. I then began pressing down lightly all around the leg seeing where pained her and where did not and the answer was pretty much her entire foreleg. I sighed and grabbed out a potion and sprayed it on her leg, she yelped and jumped away but I had done what I needed to, and I knew I would probably have to do that regularly over the next few days if I wanted her to heal properly.

I recalled Vortumna because of the injury and let out Pan. I still didn't like his matchups within the cavern but I wanted to make sure I always had two pokemon on me in here. We continued through the cave for a while more before stopping for lunch. I ate very light, being prepared for my meal to leave me at any moment. Nyx had no problem hopping around eating anything she could find and Pan was content wandering around nibbling on the little amounts of shrubbery and fungi that were found within the cave. I also let Vortumna out so I can spray some more potion on her wound and so she can eat and get some fresh air. When she came out however she acted very standoffish and careless to me. It was as if she was pouting and I couldn't help but giggle at my starters adorableness once more, which made her even poutier and made me laugh even harder. Eventually, I was able to calm down and with a few soft words and the promise of food I was able to get Vortumna to forgive me. There surrounded by my mismatched team of a mischievous bird, an adorable fox, and a carefree shape, I think that was the first time I ever began to feel ha- **BOOM!**

Out from the ground emerged a twenty-foot rock snake mouth opening and closing in a sickening crunch around Pans startled and unprepared body. I stood there in complete and utter shock and then I ran!

_I wasn't the only killer..._


	11. Creation

Hey, guys welcome back to the next update and probably the last one for a while as unfortunately for you but fortunately for me, I am going on a six-week backpacking trip on the 7th of February, while I will try and get another update out before then, there are no guarantees. As for this update, well we've hit one of the main and biggest plot points of this story and there is a lot of foreshadowing for later, though I'm sure pretty much anyone can guess who the man is. Also, a new thing will be added to the beginning of every chapter, from now on after the Authors note (if I add one). There will be an excerpt from the book at the end of this chapter. Also, I was asked about it, and I would like to add that I do now have a, simply for support, it will not affect how much I update or anything like that and the money will mostly be used as a contribution to commission stuff like cover art and fan art for this story. If you want the link PM me. Now until next time, see ya!

* * *

I didn't look back as I ran. I didn't wanna see what was left of Pan's body and I didn't wanna trip or slow down. I could feel the vibrations in the ground as the giant rock snake burrowed and began moving through the ground at high speeds. It was then that I realized that Nyx and Vortumna were both still out of their pokeballs, especially poor Vortumna with her small limp and I quickly recalled the both of them, still not looking back or slowing down.

I felt the ground beneath me begin to shift and open up and I quickly dove and rolled to the side narrowly avoiding the great snake as it emerged from the ground once more showering me with debris, one of which a small pebble pinging off my head and causing my vision to dim and myself to see stars. Then I tossed a pokeball at the Onix and not looking back to see if it worked or not I got back on my feet and began sprinting once more, my head pounding and my breath ragged and yet I kept on running until I couldn't feel any more vibrations in the ground and I believed I had lost it.

I stopped then to regain my breath, in, out, in, out and slowly I began to calm down. Then I felt the tremors again and I began sprinting again, this time making sure to zig zag so it wouldn't be able to just pop up and grab me. This slowed me down though, and I could feel the vibrations getting closer and closer, so I readied another pokeball and got ready for another dash. When it came flying out of the ground again, mouth open and ready to snatch me I released the ball and again began sprinting as hard as I possibly could, I was not gonna die like this, not like Pan, not be just another statistic.

This time I didn't stop for a breath I just kept running and now started screaming for anyone to help me. There had to be someone else in this fucking cave, someone that could help me and so I ran and screamed and ran and screamed, til my lungs and vocal chords felt like they were gonna burn up inside of me. Then I collapsed vomiting all over the cold hard, cave floor. It was there I could feel the vibrations again, far away but slowly coming closer and closer. In a last-ditch effort, I tossed my pokeballs away. If I was gonna die, and be punished by Arceus for being a murderer so be it, but I sure as hell wasn't gonna let my pokemon die with me.

As the vibrations closed in and the Onix emerged from the ground and towered over my collapsed form, I let out one last scream for help, one last prayer, and I was answered.

"Throw it." I heard a deep masculine voice say right before I blacked out.

* * *

When I came to my entire body felt sore, like I was a Hitmonchans punching bag. As I groggily sat myself up I tried to place exactly where I was. I was next to a roaring campfire which made no sense as I was also deep inside a cave and there was no wood inside a cave, and why was I in a cave? Then everything came back to me, The Onix, Pans horrific death, my collapsing and then that voice that saved me. I quickly looked around and saw a man sitting there stoking the fire, an Espeon and Pikachu sitting by his side. He looked at me with some piercing red eyes and I couldn't help but think he looked familiar but from where I was not sure. I began to get up some more but he quickly interrupted me.

"Shhh, sit down, you've had a rough enough time already." He said gently gesturing me to sit back down and I obliged as my body was killing me.

"My pokemon?" I asked worriedly.

"There fine, I retrieved there pokeballs, there right next to you." He said and I looked down and was instantly relieved, I quickly let them out and Vortumna dashed forward and nearly tackled me, and I quickly hugged her tight against me. Even Nyx didn't try and run away like she normally did, instead, of looking at me with some sort mix of pity and interest that she had never looked at me before. It was there I now realize is when she truly became mine.

"Who are you?" I asked hoarsely, my vocal chords burning red hot and raw from my screams before.

"Eh just some guy who heard your pleas for help, and couldn't ignore them." He said flashing me a little grin, that helped relax me some more. "Sorry about your Flaffy. By the way." He said and that hurt flashed back into my mind but I quickly shoved it away for now, I just couldn't deal with it at the moment.

"Thanks." I muttered and things went quiet for a moment. "So how'd you throw a fully grown Onix?" I asked peaked in interest, learning always took my mind off things.

"Oh, that was little Orpheus's doing here." He said patting the Espeon. "And that was just a juvenile." He said smiling widely.

"Wait they get bigger?" I asked eyes wide, "that thing must have been at least twenty feet"

"Oh yeah, they never stop truly growing and get even bigger as a Steelix. Hell a buddy of mind once had a fifty footer." He said a nostalgic twinkle in his eyes.

"Fifty feet!" I yelled out in surprise and he nodded.

"Yeah, that thing wasn't allowed anywhere near a city, but it was the most affectionate rock type I've ever seen, Like a growlithe pup I swear." He said laughing as he said it and I just stared in awe.

"But if they get that big, why aren't they running amok everywhere?" I asked amazed that our species was still alive.

"Oh because there hunted obviously?" He said like it was a matter of fact.

"How can something hunt a fifty foot giant rock snake." I asked again wonderously.

"Grass types duh." He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Huh, and here I thought the great MG was a smart kid." He taunted and I looked on in shock for a second.

"You know of me?"

"Of course. Ya stirred up quite a bit of press there with your Murkrow shenanigans, not to mention the fact that you won your first gym battle with zero losses or faints and won a two badge tournament with only one badge. Beating out two two badgers." He explained as I stared in awe. "You're famous kid, you're gonna have to deal with that, especially with you being what you are." He said smiling mischievously.

"What I am?" I asked curiously.

"Ya mean ya don't know?: He asked wondrously, but it just radiated off of ya.

"Know what?" I asked confused and starting to be a little irritated but he just laughed a hearty laugh.

"My god, fates a fickle bitch sometimes ain't it." He said laughing some more. "Pardon my Kalosian kid, but I couldn't a predicted somethin like this." He said and I began to become even more annoyed with this man.

"Know what?" I asked again this time the irritation evident in my voice.

"Woah, Woah, take it easy there." He said putting his hands in front of his face in mock surrender. "Listen kid, you're special alright?" He said and I began to become irritated once more, before the memory of being in Falkner's office popped into her head and she just became confused again.

"Falkner said something about me being special too." I fished back at him.

"Did he now?" The man asked curiosity evident in his voice.

"Ya, he couldn't tell how but he said I was special. Said I'd need to go see Morty. Said to make it a priority" I said repeating what Falkner had told me.

"Typical Hermes, always in a rush" He muttered and I was again confused. "Well, I'm not one to spoil surprises, so I won't tell ya either." He said grinning widely and I was beginning to question whether I actually liked this man or not. "I will however give you this." He said pulling out a ragged and dusty old book and handed it to me.

"Myths And Legends. A History Of Our Creation?" I asked reading the title. "Isn't this all just a bunch of rubbish?" I asked, my irritation flaring up once more.

"You'd be surprised what truth you can find in what other people say is rubbish." He said smiling and putting on a red and white cap and standing up. "Next time I see you, I expect you to have finished that alright?" He said grinning widely at me.

"Wait!" I yelled. "How do you know we'll meet up again." I asked uncertain.

"Because it's what fate has in store. Oh and just a heads up, ya can tell an Onixs territory as the walls will be heavily scratched and the rocks will be smooth." He said and then in a flash, he was gone leaving me to ponder exactly what he meant by all that and just who this man was.

Then while I rested I opened the first page and began to read.

* * *

_In the beginning, there was an egg,_

_From that egg emerged two beings_

_The great multi sided goat we call Arceus_

_That gave birth to every pokemon in this land._

_And the great human girl named Hera_

_Who would give birth to all the humans in this land._

_Together, they clapped and there was a great bang._

_And then_

_There was light._


	12. Pretty Women

_From that light the universe was formed._

_And the Planets created_

_So we could have a home._

_And there the great Hera and Arceus_

_Created the first beings to walk these lands._

_And Life was born._

_We were born._

* * *

I read a few more pages of the book before putting it down. I was too exhausted to even do that after the long day I just had. So I quickly made sure the fire wouldn't die before I got my sleeping bag and passed out. When I came to the next morning I still felt like I'd been stampeded by a horde of Rhyhorn. But I got up anyways, I always got back up.

Then making sure both Nyx and Vortumna were up, and that I sprayed some potion on Vortumna's injured leg. I began walking. I had no clue where I was anymore as I paid no attention during that Onyx chase. But I kept on walking anyways and hoped this would bring me somewhere. Hell after how exhausted I was I wouldn't have even minded if I ended back up at Marigold at this point, at least from there I could figure out where I was going. However, a rumble from my stomach reminded me that I hadn't eaten since Marigold and even then had spewed the contents out of my stomach. So I grabbed two sandwiches out of my bag, one for Nyx and one for me and I began eating as I walked. It was actually kind of pleasant. That was until we encountered some Zubat.

Zubat is among the most annoying pokemon to ever exist. Blind Zubat hunt using Echolocation. However, for some odd reason, this has made Zubat hyper-aggressive, choosing to hunt literally anything they register back, whether it be bigger or stronger for them. Also being one of the weakest pokemon to exist, this leads to Zubats having one of the highest mortality rates of any species. However, they also breed like Buneary. Popping out six or seven Zubat a stock is not an uncommon occurrence and so what they lack in quality they make up in quantity and have overrun nearly every cave system in the world. The worst part though was when I reached down for Pans pokeball and then remembered he wasn't in it anymore. I nearly broke down once more, yet just like before I was out of tears, I was empty. So I did what any reasonable person did when confronted with a flock of Zubat, I ran.

After running away from flock after flock of Zubat and getting really annoyed with it all. I walked down a long tunnel that connected to a wide-open cavern and I noticed heavily scratched walls. So I promptly turned around and walked in the other direction. I was not dealing with that again and backtracking a bit I sat down for a quick rest on my aching body and to spray some potion on Vortumnas leg once more. Then after Nyx begged me like I was starving her, I gave them both of them some food and I ate a small granola bar while scratching the top of Vortumnas thoughts and smiled to myself at my silly little team and then got upset again when I remember what happened to Pan. So to distract myself I packed up and then continued traveling some more.

Along the way, I encountered some more Zubat, which I ran from some more. I also encountered a couple of Geodude and stood clear knowing they were relatively harmless if you didn't disturb them. Then there was one extremely tense moment in which I found myself running full speed away from a relatively small Rhyhorn as none of my pokemon could damage the thing. Then I made camp and slept.

* * *

I woke up and then woke the team up. We shared a silent breakfast and then got up. At that point I was beginning to worry, I hadn't run into anyone besides the mysterious man who gave me the book and this was supposed to be a very well traveled area, which told me I was not in the right place. Not only that but I could feel myself beginning to slowly go insane both due to a lack of human interaction and that I had no idea what time it was. I mean I could check my pokedex and it would tell me but even then I had no feeling that it was that time, due to constantly being constrained in this cave. Ten PM felt like two PM, two PM felt like two AM and two AM felt like six Am. It just made no sense and it was beginning to get to me, that was until I met her…

I was stumbling my way through a, particularly dark tunnel when I heard some shouts ahead. Remembering what happened to me I began to sprint in the direction it was coming from and when I emerged I stumbled upon her and her team being harassed by a flock of Zubats. She couldn't have been more different from myself, short whereas I was tall for my age, long fiery red hair while I had shorter black hair and she seemed to be wearing what seemed to be a dress whereas I preferred to wear more practical and efficient clothing. She was beautiful and I knew it even at my young age.

I quickly ordered Nyx in to help and with both of us working together it was over in a matter of minutes with multiple dead Zubat on the ground and the rest flying off in retreat.

"Thanks, bloody annoying bastards ain't they?." She said making her way over to me and a dazzling smile on her face a distinct Hoenn accent in her voice.

"Uh ya, no sweat it. I mean don't problem." I stammered out to her and she laughed.

"Take it, easy kid, I don't bite." She said smiling once more this time more gently.

"Yes, sorry, yes!" I again stammered out causing her to laugh again.

"I like you, you're polite." She commented and laughed loudly some more, god that laugh sounded nice.

"Thank you," I said quietly, for some reason happy that this girl liked me.

"I'm Katie." She said extending a hand.

"MG" I replied shaking her hand back.

"No shit." She said laughing some more. "No wonder your Murkrow kicked those annoying Zubats ass." She said now with admiration in her voice causing me to blush.

"You've heard of me?"

"Half of Johto has, that kill on those blokes Cacnea was one of the most brutal things I've ever seen." She said and I winced at the mention of Zach Cacnea.

"Oooh tender subject?" She asked and I nodded feeling familiar nausea accompanied with the memory boiling in my stomach. "First kill?" She asked and I nodded again. "Ahh, it gets easier I'll tell ya that." She said and I just nodded again fearing if I opened my mouth I would vomit again.

"How long have you been traveling?" I asked when I managed to swallow my bile down.

"Eh, I think I'm about two, two and a half years now? I was a bit of a late bloomer, left when I turned twelve." She said pondering and I couldn't believe she didn't even know. Here I was planning everything out and she seemed to just do it.

"How long you been in Johto?" I asked.

"I think four months now? I traveled around Hoeen for a while but well, let's just say I needed a new start so I came here." She said flashing another smile though this time I could see that it was only courteous and she wasn't actually smiling at least her eyes weren't.

"Wow, two years and you couldn't beat some Zubat?" I said and then winced as I realized what I said.

"Ouch." She replied but this time the smile was back and there was a fire in her eyes. "I'll have ya know I could take them easily but I was training this little guy." She said gesturing to a small armor plated rodent I was just noticing for the first time.

"No way, you got a Shrew?" I asked super excited.

"Yeah a child of the Jason Zechlenshmerg himself." She said and I squealed in excitement.

Sandshrew and its evolution Sandslash were the legends of the underdog community. With there armored plating, they were always considered decent as a defensive threat that not even a Krookodiles teeth could crack. It wasn't until a man named Jason Zeclenshmerg appeared that anybody even considered it anything but a beginners pokemon. However, Jason proved them all wrong with his now infamous RushSlash as it's referred to.

A nobody. Jason just barely squeaked into the pools of one of the top world tournaments and was up against the number one battler in the world at the time, May Maple an ex-champion of Hoenn. May was sporting her championship winning team including a Salamence, Blaziken, and Metagross and Jason was sporting a simple and team with his only high-level threat being a Tyranitar. The match was going just as expected with May up five to three, having only lost her Salamance to a lucky shot from a Rhydons stone edge. That was when the RushSlash came out, see some Sandshrews and Sandslashes, typically the runt of the litter or ones with less pronounced defensive capabilities instead learned how to move twice as fast under the cover of the sandstorms of there native homes and a sandstorm was brewing and the Slash started sweeping. Within ten minutes May's Blaziken and Metagross were down, and in twenty so was the rest of her team. In one of the biggest upsets in competitive history, May went from being up five to zero, too losing three to zero and being knocked out of the tourney. Jason went on to place fifth in the tourney, losing to another weather team and since then Sandslash has been the want of many new trainers, hence why I was so excited to see one.

"Where did you get it?" I asked, plans and ideas now beginning to spin inside my head.

"Don't get too excited kid, this one cost me three hundred thousand dollars." She said simultaneously crushing my dreams and causing my mouth to go wide. I had only made around twenty thousand from that last tournament.

"How'd you get that kinda money?" I asked staring at what I now thought must be a Hoenn celebrity or something.

"That ties into why I left Hoenn and like I said, I'd rather not go into that." She said and with that, the subject was closed.

"So… do you know how to get out of here?" I asked nervously after a few moments of awkward silence passed.

"Shit, I was gonna ask you the same thing." She said laughing and nervously rubbing the back of her head. "Well, ya wanna stick together?" She asked and all of a sudden my heart was aflutter again.

"Um sure."

"Haha, I told ya mate, no need to be so nervous, I am bloody person same as you." She said and I nodded.

"So uh, what other teammates you got," I said quickly changing the subject to one I could understand and she answered me by releasing two more pokeballs, one being a large horned and black canine and the other being a small, red and fluffy canine, the latter of which immediately ran over to me and began begging me to pet it which I happily obliged.

"This is Rex." She said gesturing to the Houndoom which was incredibly standoffish and sticking by her own side. "And that little goofball is Hector but be careful, he'll love ya to death." She said laughing as Hector slobbered all over me. "What about you? Just the Eevee, Murkrow and Flaffy and I winced at the mention of Pann.

"Actually just the Eevee and Murkrow, wild Onix," I said and she winced sympathy knowing that's all I had to say.

"Sorry mate, that part doesn't ever get easier." She said and I nodded trying once again not to break down and just barely succeeding.

"So what do ya say to a friendly battle before we find our way out of here." She asked and just like that my shy side was completely gone.

"You're on," I said smirking.


	13. Best Friends

_We did not age_

_Nor did we fear death_

_It was a perfect world_

_A peaceful world_

_A stagnant world_

_And so_

_Arceus and Hera_

_Created eight more beings to govern this world_

_Dialga, Palkia and Chronos to govern time_

_And so we could age_

_Yveltal, Giratina and Hades, to govern death._

_And so we could die_

_Xerneas, Mew and Hestia to govern life_

_And so we could live_

* * *

She kicked my ass, it's not even worth describing the battle as it was over so fast that I blinked and both my pokemon were unconscious. I just stood there dumbfounded, mouth so agape I could probably catch a Zubat in it.

"Don't look so shocked. I have been traveling for over two years." She said and I just nodded slowly unused to being trounced so easily. "Doesn't help that I'm a five badger either." She mentioned nonchalantly and now my surprise turned to anger.

"A five badger? Why'd you fight me then?" I asked now getting into motion and beginning to heal Nyx and Vortumna.

"I wanted to see what all the bloody fuss was about, so far I ain't too impressed with the great MG." She said smirking and I could feel my temper begin to rise even more. I was starting to already regret agreeing to travel with her.

"I mean did you have to use the Houndoom?" I asked trying my best not too let my anger into my voice.

"Lesson number one rookie, never ever go easy on someone." She said in mock lecturing voice.

"You're giving me lessons now?" I yelled now not caring about the clearly evident anger in my voice.

"Yup, I'm you're new mentor kid, get used to it." She said with that same infuriating smirk.

"I don't need a mentor, I've been preparing for this my entire life, years of research was put into every detail," I yelled back at her.

"Yes and I've been living it for the past two years, which leads me to lesson two. Ditch the books rook. They'll do nothing but slow ya down and most of the shit ya have to learn by doing not seeing." She lectured back again and I slowly swallowed down my anger, I was not gonna punch this girl I was not.

"Alright, and what may I ask is lesson three?" I asked visibly shaking.

"Lesson three is take a chill pill lass. There ain't no point being so high strung and it's certainly a lot less fun." She said and that was it I lunged and was promptly knocked on my ass by a now growling Growlithe. "Lesson number four? Don't try and fight someone stronger than you, you'll just end up getting your ass kicked." She said smiling softer now and pulling her Growlithe off of me. I was right I really was gonna regret traveling with her.

"Come on let's just get going," I said as I began walking away from her.

"Just ya wait, one of these I'm gonna get a smile outta ya." She said running to catch up with me.

* * *

We continued onwards through the cave, still completely and utterly lost and our pokedex without any sort of signal to guide us through it. The worst part is that Katie would just not shut up. She always had some anecdote to add in whenever we passed something, like that one time her Growlithe got stuck in a Combee nest or when her Houndoom ate a Trapinch and she had to spend three months being chased by an angry momma Flygon and I must have heard the story about her Sandshrew thinking she was her mother at least four times alone in those few hours. I hated it so much, I had begun to miss the days spent alone with just me Nyx and Vortumna, hell I even began to miss my mother's beatings, at least I could take the physical pain but this, this was pure torture and should be banned by the KanJoan government for cruel acts against humanity.

When we set up camp that night, we had Hector start the fire as Rex's fire was a little too poisonous and we sat very close around it as caves typically ended up being cold especially around this time of year.

"Haha, this reminds me of this one time when ole rex was just a pup." " Katie started and I rolled my eyes thinking here we go again. " It was me, Rex. Samwell the Altaria, Kizno the Drowzee and me starter Johnny, the sweetest bloody Camerupt ya ever met. I had a much larger team at the time ya see." She said and now my interest was piqued, she never talked about her other teammates.

"What happened to them?" I responded without even thinking.

"That be a sad story. One I'll only tell after a few good drinks." She replied the usual cheeriness gone from her voice.

"Sorry." I apologized, knowing just how much losing a pokemon could actually hurt.

"It's all good missy. Now, where was I?" She said pondering to herself. "Oh right, well I was having a hard time trying to get Rex to follow my commands, he didn't like anyone challenging his authority and all that alpha, beta bullshit. Well, I was trying to get him to start a fire because I didn't know about his poison and we were on top of a mountain and I was freezing my tits off. Well, I finally had enough, so I ordered Jonny to start the fire and he did, good mon Johnny. " She said and this time I could see a couple of tears leaking from her eyes. "Anyways, Rex the little shit at the time, do ya know what he does?"

"What?" I ask back humoring her.

"He begins pissin out the fire as Johnny's lightin it. If ya thought Houndour smoke was toxic, yee should try Houndour the smell of Houndour piss. The stuff is so foul it'll knock ya unconscious after one whiff." She said laughing hard now. " And it becomes this battle of Johnny's flamethrower versus Rex's piss to see who can last longer and within ten seconds Rex is losing and whimpering, and what happens next?"

"What?" I asked a smile creeping to my face. For the first time being invested in one of her tales.

"Kizno walked right up beside Rex and began pissin on the fire too. I couldn't believe my eyes, and with that, they began to beat back Johnnys flames and he was getting angry and Johnny was not one to normally get angry. So he began stomping the ground around us sending little tremors through the earth, and… and." She said laughing so hard she couldn't even finish the sentence. "He made Kizno fall back and begin rolling around pissin all over himself and Rex." She said begging to roll back and forth laughing even harder. "So Rex turns and begins dribbling the last of his piss on Kizno and Johnny lights the fire." She finished wiping tears of laughter from her eyes and I was laughing right alongside her, god it felt good to laugh again.

"See I told ya I'd getcha. Now ya owe me fifty quid." She said.

"What why?" I asked still chuckling.

"Cause I made a bet to myself and since I can't pay myself you're gonna have to." She explained and I was even more confused.

"But that doesn't even ma-"

"Relax, it was a joke." She said laughing even harder.

After that, we turned in for the night, When morning came I woke up early as I had always done but Katie was dead asleep, so I made some breakfast, let out Vortumna and Nyx for some morning training, treated Vortumna's wounds, trained some more. Stopped them both from attacking Rex as I didn't wanna have to wait all day for them to heal up again. Ate lunch, trained even more and only then did Katie finally wake up.

"How long you been up?" She asked as she sat up.

"Five hours," I replied nonchalantly as I walked over and began packing up my stuff.

"Bloody hell where do ya get all the energy from?" She asked yawning loudly as she stood up. "If I got as much sleep as ya I'd be unable to move for the day."

"Actually I slept in today, we were up kinda late last night," I said finishing rolling up my sleeping bag.

"You're a machine." She mocked back wide-eyed.

"No, I just wanna be the best," I said back matter of factly. "Ya can't do that by being lazy."

"Ya calling me lazy." She replied angrily.

"Well yes, if ya got up before one, I wouldn't think so, but well here we are," I explained to her.

"Well, ya got me there." She replied shocking me with how understanding she was and for a while, we packed up our belongings in silence. "Shall we?" She asked after she finally finished packing.

"Let's go," I replied and we began traveling once more.

It took six more days of traveling before we finally reached the end of the cave and together we both stepped out into the sunlight and fresh air, the seeds of a wonderful friendship planted.

_Hey everyone, how's it going? I know it's been a while since I last updated and I'm sorry. Lifes just been kicking me in the ass lately but I promise it won't be nearly as long of a wait for the next chapter._

_Anyways a couple of shoutouts. First off check out Artofnedistry's new fic, Run Forever, A well thought out fic, with lots of worldbuilding. I suggest ya jump on the train early as I can tell this is gonna be a big one._

_I also suggest ya check out SilverRockets, Child of Thorns. One of the longer fanfics on this website but it's a really amazing character-driven fic, dealing with lots of cool mythology, a well-written plot and an excellent sense of comedic timing._

_As for the newest chapter, sorry it's so short, but I hope you enjoyed the character interaction and Katie as I had a fun time writing her. Until Next time see ya!_


	14. S.O.B

_We walked the endless plains of our world_

_Fearless, careless and full of sin_

_And for our blasphemy our mother and father punished us_

_They created Kyogre and Poseidon_

_Who flooded our world and washed away our lives and our sins_

_Yet in all there might mother and father were merciful_

_They created Groudon and Gaia_

_Made high mountains and plateaus for the righteous to survive the flood._

_And they fought each other to establish there chosen goals_

_And so did there followers_

_And many died._

_And thus a hero emerged._

_A young man by the name of Apollo_

_Who prayed day and night to father and mother_

_Begged and pleaded for his people's salvation_

_And who led the rest of civilization against the warring factions_

_And which resulted in his death by the fanatics_

_But mother and father were merciful_

_And revived the man with the power to rival there own and gave him a partner_

_And so Apollo and Rayquaza took to the sky_

_Where neither land nor sea could touch._

_Together with the great power mother and father gave them_

_They put Kyogre and Groudon to sleep_

_And ended the war_

_And they made peace between Sister Gaia and Brother Poseidon_

_And forever held the bridge of peace in this world should Kyogre and Groudon awaken_

_And became the champion of humanity._

* * *

When we stepped outside the first thing I did was take a nice deep breath of fresh air. It felt amazing and I couldn't suppress a grin as Vortumna excitedly went running around both me and Katie in circles in her own little bliss of escaping the cave. Nyx, of course, went right to the nearest tree and as far away from us she could, that was my little girl and it made me smile even harder.

"Nice ta see a smile on your face, Ms. Ice queen," Katie commented and as I turned to look at her, I was shocked to see that her first reaction to leaving the cave was to light up a cigarette. "What?" She asked me as I gawked at her.

"We just got into the fresh air, and you start sucking down one of those?" I ask incredulously.

"Well, I didn't wanna clog tha cave with second-hand smoke, that would make me a right cunt now wouldn't it." She said taking another long deep drag of her cigarette.

"Well uh yeah, I guess." I stammered out and she smirked smugly making me wanna hit her until I remembered the last time I tried that.

"Lesson number five? I'm always right." She lectured and then burst into laughter at the clear expression of anger I had on my face. "Come on I think we're about a two-day journey from Opal town." She said and the thought of a nice warm shower instantly brightened up my mood. However, it was quickly darkened when I felt a ton of vibration within my backpack and I quickly took out the culprit, my Pokedex...

"Um just one moment, I need to check this," I said turning away from Katie.

* * *

" _Hey I saw your tournament run in Marigold, and I was just wondering if you were okay, I know my first kill was really rough. Oh and also I got an unwanted egg if ya want it? I'll even sell it to ya sixty percent off regular price. Call me when ya get this."_

_-Breeder Cale sixteen days ago_

" _Hey I don't know where ya are but I'm worried about ya squirt, Ya haven't called me yet and after the way you took off after that tourney, I'm a little scared."_

_-Breeder Cale eight days ago_

" _Hey, I guess you must have entered Union Cave, and have no service, anyways that Egg I have is still here and pretty close to hatching and well it's yours if you still want it. Call me._

_-Breeder Cale six hours ago_

I nervously walked away from Katie and rang Cale and after three rings he picked up.

"Hello?" He questioned when he picked up.

"Hi, um it's MG…" I nervously responded and proceeded to have an ear full shouted at me through my Pokedex. When he finally calmed down and I explained I was fine, we agreed to meet at Opal town in around two days, after that, I hung up and returned to Katie.

* * *

"Who was that?" She asked immediately on my return.

"Oh just my breeder," I responded and started walking forward in the direction of Opal town.

"Wait a second ya have ya own bloody breeder?" She asked in astonishment. "What kinda royalty shat you outta there womb." She asked and it made me smile for a second, she certainly had a way with words.

"He's not my breeder, he just happens to be a breeder I know," I replied nonchalantly causing her to be even more outraged.

"And this here breeder, does he give ya discounts? Chances no one else has? Unwanted items and everything?" She asked the same bewilderment in her voice.

"Well um… yes." I said back blushing nervously.

"I don't fuckin believe it, she's got herself a fuckin breeder." She shouted to no one in particular. "Well, little Miss Goddess. Ain't ya fucking perfect then." She shot at me sarcastically and I grinned wider, I was happy to have one thing over her.

"Shall we get going then?" I said and began walking even faster.

"Hey wait up." She said before running to catch up.

We walked and bantered back and forth for a few hours until finally, the sun began to set and we made camp. I went and gathered firewood or to be more specific I went to and then Nyx dropped a lot of it on my head, the bitch and when it was lit Katie started on the food, that was the deal we arranged.

"Ya know I always wanted to be a cook when I was a little girl," Katie said as she slowly roasted a Bidoof that was unfortunate enough to stumble upon our little camp.

"Well, why didn't you?" I asked back as I read some pages from the book the stranger gave me.

"Money." She said and I snorted in agreement., "That and me mum and dad never woulda approved." She explained with a hint of resentment pouring through her voice,

"Well fuck them then," I replied and she let out a long laugh,

"I don't know what kinda shit you Johtoans are into but we tend not to do that to our family members in Hoenn." She shot back and it was my turn to let out a chuckle.

"In all seriousness though, you don't seem the type to care about what your parents think," I said back.

"Well, when ya mums a gym trainer and ya dads an ex-competitive battler, who drill into ya how important it is ta keep the family legacy goin. Ya would ignore what ya want too." She explained some more that same bitterness creeping into her tone. "What about your parents?" She asked back. "Ya doing this ta make them proud or somethin?"

"They're dead," I replied without emotion, still not sure how that made me feel.

"Ah sorry about that then." She apologized solemnly.

"Don't worry about it. My mother was an abusive drug addict and my father was an alcoholic enabler." I said laughing back dryly and when I looked at her she stared back at me within something else in her eyes.

"Dinners done." She finally replied after a few minutes and with that, we ate in silence and went to bed in silence.

* * *

We both woke up early the next morning with the suns rise blinding us and reminding us of being outside. We packed up in silence and as we walked along the edge of the forest we bantered back and forth chattily like nothing happened the night before. Vortumna and Hector run up and down the path chasing each other the entire time with there boundless energy, while Nyx flew freely dropping the occasional twig on me and to his annoyance Rex who stayed very close to us.

I also caught a Caterpie, Weedle and a couple of Kakuna along the way. I knew that in the town of the bug gym, I could probably sell a few bug types for a decent amount of money and it was nice to log somethings in my research dex, so I didn't feel like a sham with it the whole time. Eventually, we sat down for lunch and some training before continuing on our trek and as we did my mind began to wander to our destination.

Opal town was a place I was very excited to visit, it was one of three major fronts in the Kanjoan war of unification, which take place from the year three thousand, eighty-seven to three thousand ninety-two almost thirty-seven years ago from the current date. Hundreds of thousands died in the mass war of the two regions until Johto surrendered unconditionally and the continent was united under one league, the current indigo league.

Opal town suffered among the worst in the war, being the eastern front for Johto invaders. It was here one of the grandest sieges in the history of our world happened lasting almost the entire war. It was a Kantonian general by the name of Arthur Currie that led Kantoan troops through the battle and invented the strategy of the rolling barrage. Sending dozens of Voltorb, Electrode and Golem rolling forwards into the enemy line, those that weren't stopped crushed hundreds of enemy troops, and it didn't matter if they were stopped, As Currie ordered them all to explode and then leading his troops he charged through the explosions and took Opal town for his own, what was once thought to be unconquerable, even if he had first reduced it to ash.

Nowadays rebuilt there lays a massive graveyard where one can come to pay their respects to the fallen and is the only place in the world where a certain flower grew. One of my grandparents died in that war, shortly after my father was born and I hoped to go and pay my respects. That and I loved history and wished to experience the grand history this place held true.

We arrived early in Opal town, just as night began to fall and we made a beeline for the pokemon center and agreed to share a room, so it would be a bit cheaper. After losing rock paper scissors I agreed that Katie could have the first shower, and when I was done showering I came back to a more nicely dressed Katie then I thought I would, and blushing I remembered my first impressions of her and how good looking she actually was. Unfortunately for me, she caught me staring.

"What?" She asked and I quickly looked away blushing even more.

"Uh, nothing, what are you all dressed up for?" I asked abruptly changing the subject.

"Oh, isn't it obvious? We're going to go have a drink.": She replied like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Aren't we underage?" I asked nervously.

"We're trainers, Ya show them your trainer card and ya can get in anywhere." She explained and I just swallowed nervously.

"Well I'd rather not drink, it kills brain cells and-" I started but was quickly cut off.

"Oh shut your bloody trap and live a little." She said and I did quickly shut up and giving in to peer pressure, I changed into something comfortable and followed her out the door. I remember seven stages from that night.

* * *

_Stage one_

_Drinking_

* * *

We got to our first bar and to my surprise Katie was right, we simply flashed our trainer cards and we were seated. With some live jazz being played in the background, it had a nice casual atmosphere. I have to admit that Katie knew what she was doing bringing me there for my first bar.

"We'll take two shots of Kalosian Vodka and then two glasses of May Maple Razz Wine.." Kalosian Vodka, Katie said to the waitress when she came by. "So how ya feeling?" She asked me once the waitress left.

"Nervous," I stammered out back to her.

"Don't be, I'll take good care of ya." She said with a wink and suddenly I felt even more uneasy and then the waitress came back with our drinks. "To a terrible hangover!" She half yelled, half toasted and I raised my glass back, and we both knocked our shots back, causing me immediately to start coughing and sputtering.

"What the hell was that?" I asked when I calmed down.

"The first step," Katie replied laughing harshly and then we sat and sipped our wine while chatting.

* * *

_Stage Two_

_Tipsy_

* * *

"Woah, this is weird," I said feeling a bit lightheaded after I finished my first glass of wine.

"What's weird?" Katie asked back, as she quickly ordered this time a couple of glasses of aged Hoenn scotch.

"This feeling," I replied back, not too sure what to make of it.

"Oh that, ya it gets better." She said laughing. "God I love newbies."

"So Ms. Kaytay. What is your deal?" I asked her.

"Uh, what do you mean?" She questioned back.

"Why you so upbeat all the time?

"Well ya gotta be, ya either forget the bad stuff and be happy or ya go insane." She explained. "That and a good strong drink certainly helps." She joked afterward and I laughed alongside her.

* * *

 

_Stage Three._

_Giggley_

* * *

The scotch was gross, Katie drank it much faster than I did and she finished her second glass in the time it took me to finish my first. By the end of it though I began to feel amazing and began giggling quite happily to myself for no reason in particular.

"What's so funny?" Katie asked me and it caused me to laugh even harder.

"Everything," I replied loudly enough that it made Katie jump back a bit.

"Aww, drunk you is so cute." She snapped back and I blushed heavily.

"You're so cute all the time." I retorted back and then gasped loudly and covered my mouth, causing her to burst once more into loud laughter and I shortly followed suit. The two of us laughed together for at least a minute before Katie suggested we switch to another place. I nodded in agreement and stumbled getting up, with Katies help we stumbled to another bar, this time one with much more vibrant music.

* * *

 

_Stage Four_

_Dancey_

* * *

When we got into this bar, Katie immediately led us to the bar, where we shared another couple of shots and I took them much better this time. Then I began bumping and grooving to the music, which was weird as I had never danced before in my life. Katie quickly led us onto the dance floor and I flailed my limbs around with as much spontaneity as I could. At least until Katie showed me how to actually dance.

We danced and danced and danced, and Katie left to get us some drinks, while I continued my horrid attempt at dancing. Eventually, some young guy came up to me and asked me to dance and I in all my amazing wisdom ran away in fright.

* * *

 

_Stage Five_

_Cryie_

* * *

In my drunken stupor, I realized how hungry I actually was and stumbled my way out of the bar. Luckily in the surrounding central street, I spotted quite a few places to eat and stumbled my way into one of them. There I ordered some dish I don`t even remember and a glass of wine, this time instead made from Pecha berries.

Enjoying my food. I sat there for a while eating hungrily and sipping my drink until I remembered Katie's existence. After paying my bill I quickly stumbled my way out of the restaurant and back into the club. Where after some short searching I found her wandering around looking for me. Upon spotting me she ran over and hugged me.

"What the bloody hell, where were you?" Asked, yelling in anger and tears began to well in my eyes.

"I'm sorry, there was this guy. He asked me to dance and I didn't know what to do, so I ran. Then I couldn't find you and then I was hungry, so I got something to eat and I'm sorry." I stammered out very slurred and nervously.

"It's okay, just don't do it again, alright?" She asked and I nodded. "Now come on, let's go drink some more."

* * *

_Stage Six_

_Nothing_

I don't remember a single thing.

* * *

_Stage Seven_

_Hangover_

* * *

When I woke up I felt like Hector had tackled me all over again. When I looked down I was shocked to find myself completely clothless. I was even more shocked when I felt the bile rise up from my throat and I ran to the bathroom and hurled inside the toilet. Wiping my mouth I quickly washed my hands and began sipping greedily from the tap and then collapsed back into bed and fell asleep.

When I awoke next it was to my Pokedex vibrating and with a groan, I picked it up and saw that Cale left me a message saying he was in town. I groaned some more and ignored it but before I could fall back asleep, the door opened and in walked Katie.

"Rise and Shine, kiddo." She said laughing when I groaned an unintelligible response back to her.

"Why I am I naked?" I finally asked when I felt I could speak.

"You fucked like six lads last night." She responded and I shot up in fear.

"What?" I asked back shocked.

"Oh yeah, it was crazy to watch, though you're a lot louder than I thought you'd be?" She said and I began to shake with fear.

"Really?" I asked nervously.

"Nah of course not, I told ya I'd take care of ya, didn't I?" She explained and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Then why am I naked?" I asked again.

"Ya gurped all over your clothes, I figured ya didn't wanna sleep in that, so I helped ya take it off." She explained.

"Thanks," I replied and she just shrugged it off. "Does it always feel like this?" I asked my head still pounding heavily.

"Pretty much."

"I'm never drinking again," I said and she laughed some more.

"Sure ya aren't. Now come on don't ya have some meeting to go to or something?" She asked and I groaned and got up to get changed. Then the two of us left the room a little worse in some aspects but a lot better in others.

* * *

_Hey guys, got this one out much sooner, thanks for reading as always and make sure to rate and review. I know I had a lot of fun with Drunk MG and have been having some fun writing some fluff. But don't worry it will get back to the regular journey very soon._

_Also, some decent worldbuilding and references to real life history and some hints towards the next team member, whoever guesses what it is correctly, will have it named after them for the most part._

_Also if ya want, I do have a Patreon if ya want it pm me and I'll send ya a link._

_Until next time._


	15. Helter Skelter

_As a symbol of peace_

_Brother Poseidon and Sister Gaia came together_

_And a new child was born_

_One of the name Demeter_

_And father blessed upon her a new partner_

_One of the name Shaymin_

_Together they transformed the wartorn land_

_Into one full of grass and fauna_

_And yet the fauna slowly withered away_

_For it had endless water and earth_

_Yet nothing for it to feed off of_

_And so Apollo and Cresellia were created_

_Together they created the sun_

_And guided it across the night sky each day_

_And yet the grass which once withered_

_Now became so strong_

_It dared to challenge_

_Hermes for his rule_

_And the gods above him_

_So the gods created Artemis and Darkrai_

_And they created the moon_

_Which would overthrow the sun_

_For half of the day_

_And so we got the night_

_And thus ended the grasses reign_

_Over before it began_

* * *

 

Katie made sure that the first thing we did after leaving the room was to go and grab a cup of coffee, another first for me. She said it would help with the horrible pounding in my head, it did not. However, after having a couple of glasses of water and some food I began to feel like I could function once more. So I quickly sent a message back to Cale informing him of what room we were staying in and then made my way back there for a quick nap, while Katie left to explore the city. One I did not get as almost as soon as I got there, Cale knocked on my door causing me to groan loudly while I walked over and opened it.

"Hello, Misses Graham." He said smiling widely at me and I nodded slightly, in a little too much pain to talk. "Are you alright?" He asked, concern coming over his face.

"Yeah, um sorry. I uh had a little bit to drink last night." I said waving his concerns away and he burst into joyful laughter.

"I've certainly been there." He said still chuckling to himself. "If you want I could come back later?: He asked and I quickly shook my head, he had already waited too long for a reply in the first place and I honestly just wanted to get this over with.

"No, it's fine. You said you had an egg for me?" I half asked half groaned causing him to chuckle some more.

"Yes, we found it in one of our enclosures a few weeks ago and have been incubating it since." He explained and I nodded along. "We have a guess of who it's a mother is, being an egg and all it belongs to a nonmammal, but we have no clue who the father is."

"Ah and that's why I'm getting it so cheap," I said now nodding in understanding.

"Precisely, So it'll cost ya twenty-four thousand pokedollars." He said and I jumped up in shock, a mistake really as it increased the dizziness I felt.

"I thought you were giving me a discount?" I yelled in shock.

"I am, the original price was forty-thousand pokedollars, and hey we'll throw the incubator in for free too." He bargained and I just shook my head in disbelief.

"Why would I pay that much for an unknown pokemon?" I asked trying to turn the pressure back on him.

"It's simple, the breeding center I work for, only accepts those of elite members, or to be more precise those of the elite four and gym leaders." He explained and suddenly I was ready to throw my money at this deal.

You see Pokemon after being bred are typically stronger when bred with a stronger member of there species, natural selection and evolution at it's finest. After all, if a pokemon gets strong and passes down those genes and attributes to its kin, then they will naturally be stronger than another pokemon without those attributes. As such the brood of an Elite member or Gym leader often could go for hundreds of thousands as they typically had the strongest of there species known to this world. For that Twenty-Four thousand was an easy steal.

"Alright, let me check my bank account," I said and quickly pulled up my pokedex. I saw through winning battles in my travels and the winnings from Marigold. That I had roughly twenty-six thousand dollars to my name. This meant that if I bought this I would be very tight on supplies until Azalea town where I could sell, a few of the pokemon I caught for some spare change. "Alright before I do this, what's the catch?" I asked and he grinned widely.

"See I knew I liked you, you're a smart one." He said wagging his finger at me. "Just what I said before, you enter an exclusive agreement with me, to only buy from my breeding center, well at least for one year. That and you tell me as soon as it hatches what it is, alright?" He said and I nodded and shook his hand, thinking that was a steal. "One more thing, if you only take Elite and Gym leader pokemon, why were you so interested in breeding Nyx?" I asked curiously.

"Well, I believe that you're gonna make it really far one day, miss Graham, far enough that you'll certainly hit our standards." He complimented me, making my face turn a bright scarlet at the praise. "But enough talk, if you could just transfer me the funds, I'll happily hand over the egg to you." He said gesturing to my Pokedex and I did as he said. Afterward, he removed from his bag a glass container, inside of it was a darkish red, almost maroon color, with yellow spots.  
"This right here is the best incubator on the marker, constantly feeding heat onto the egg to incubate and help hatch it. It will beep suddenly and loudly when the egg is hatching, so you don't have to constantly watch it. And finally, it is reinforced with Bullet seed proof glass, capable of taking the impact from a Brelooms bullet seed, and a single kick from a Blaziken, you have no need to worry about it breaking on a fall." He explained and I nodded along happy with my purchase.

I thanked him for his time and this opportunity and he left quickly, explaining that this was a busy season for his center, as many of the feline and canine pokemon left there would be going into heat soon. I took my newly found privacy to admire my egg for a few minutes before finally succumbing to exhaustion, and taking a small and quick nap.

* * *

 

I awoke roughly an hour later still feeling a bit nauseous but ultimately a lot better. I shot a quick message to Katie, telling her that I was finished with my business and could meet up whenever. To no one's surprise, she was at a bar and her message was pretty shoddily typed I took a quick shower, threw on some clothes and made my way to where she specified.

When I arrived, Katie was nowhere near as just drunk as I thought she was at first from her message, and when she offered me a drink I declined swiftly as the smell of alcohol made me gag and want to vomit.

"So how'd your little meeting go, little miss sunshine," Katie asked and I pulled the egg and incubator out of my bag. "Wow, that's definitely gonna be a fire type." She exclaimed upon seeing the egg.

"How do you know?" I asked curiously.

"Look at the coloring. That kinda shade of red can only belong to a fire type family member. Not only that but if you put your hand closer to the egg, like so." She said opening the incubator and putting her hand down slightly into it and quickly retrieving it out of it. "You'll see that is very hot in there." She explained confidently.

"Well isn't the incubator supposed to keep it hot," I asked back doubting her knowledge.

"It's supposed to keep it warm, that right there is pure scalding heat. Nothing but a fire type could emit something like that." She explained some more and I followed her and put my hand inside but couldn't even get nearly as close as she did.

"How did you know that?" I asked, now filled with curiosity.

"You've seen my team, I specialize mainly in fire types." She said smirking cockily.

"Yes. but the fire types you use are mainly mammals." I retorted back.

"Correct but that's only the ones I have left, you never saw what pokemon I had before I came here." She shot me down and I knew she had won.

"So what kinda fire type did you have, that emerged from an egg?"

"Salandit, found a nest near Mt Chimney after I uh, dealt with the Salazzle." She said with a nervous chuckle and I understood immediately what she meant by dealt with it.

"Any strong?" I asked and she shook her head.

"Nah, it was male so it'd never evolve," she explained. "So what do you think's inside it?" She asked quickly changing the subject.

"No clue, but at least we can rule out most mammals," I said and she nodded. From there our conversation turned to us mostly guessing as to what it could possibly. Mine most hoped for was a Torchic but I knew there was no way I'd get that lucky. After that, we turned into all sorts of subjects including Katie incessantly making fun of me for the night before to my chagrin. It stayed like that and was pretty nice at least until the tv's in the bar all flipped to an emergency broadcast.

"Breaking News, a new suspect has risen in the murder case of former champion Ethan Goldberg, we go to the current champion for more details." The newscaster said before it cut to an aged red-haired man, wearing a black suit and a long red cape, Lance Jormungandr Yilbegan the current league champion.

"My fellow Kanjoans, a terrible tragedy befell our country only Twenty-two weeks ago when our beloved and missed champions life was tragically cut short when a wild Xatu approached and through a series of psionic based attacks, murdered the former champion for trespassing upon it lands," Lance explained and I began to feel something fishy was about, there's no way that Ethan would travel without a teammate out, especially somewhere as dangerous as Mt, Silver, and no way a rogue Xatu had the power to beat his entire team by itself.

"I know many of you are wondering how a Xatu could have beaten the champions team by itself, and I'm sad to say that it did not, but instead there was a malfunction with Mr. Goldbergs pokeballs that caused his existing pokemon to return to it, and blocked him from releasing any new pokemon. Not a simple glitch but instead a malicious attack by one well known technological expert, a Mr. William Albatross, otherwise known as Bill." He announced and nobody in the entire bar spoke a word, hanging on Lances every word. "At two PM this afternoon Cerulean time, officials attempted to arrest Mr. Albatross but he had already fled his home. I'm putting this out as an official warning if you see this man." Lance said and a picture of Bill emerging from his house on the bay of Cerulean appeared. "Do not approach him, for he is armed with a dangerous team of pokemon, and possibly whatever he used to disable Mr. Goldbergs pokeballs. Instead, report him to the rangers or the league and he will be taken care of swiftly. That is all, No further comments." Lance said and the screen switched back to the newscaster, who began throwing out all this information.

The bar remained silent after that, nobody moved more than the simple motion of moving there drink to there lips. My mind was spinning, I found it so weird that the infamous Bill would do something like this. I mean, he wasn't only renowned for creating the PC system but was also known for his anti Terrorist operations. Using his well-refined technical skills to alert authorities to the position of many rogue groups, such as remaining Rocket members and corrupt corporation leaders such as the ex-president of Silph. Not only was Gold actively fighting towards the things that Bill believed in, but Bill back in the beginnings of Gold's journey, Bill something in him and gave him the Eevee that would become his flagship Jolteon. If he saw something like that in Gold before, what would make him turn on him so suddenly to commit murder like this? It just didn't make sense to me.

"Oy, MG." Katie's voice shouted out next to me snapping me out of my own thoughts.

"Sorry what?" I asked remembering exactly where we were again.

"Bloody took ya long enough." She said chuckling to herself. "I was asking if ya wanted to leave, this place is dead now."

"Yeah sure, I need to get some training in anyways," I said still half paying attention.

"That's a good idea." She agreed and we paid our bill quickly and left.

* * *

 

We walked far out of town and into the surrounding forestland, there we released our pokemon and they took the time to stretch out their limbs. Vortumna immediately ran over to me and I leaned down and scratched behind her ear, happy to see her limp gone. Not only that but I saw her fur in certain places begin to become quite a few shades lighter and that made me smile, it meant she was slowly getting closer to Evolution. Though it also meant I could rule out getting an Umbreon or a Vaporeon. However, my smile was quickly taken off my face when a stick fell and hit me in the back of the head.

Angrily I looked up to see Nyx in the trees cackling that little laugh of hers. I recalled and released her, quickly ordering Vortumna forward who tackled and pinned her. Then it was my turn to laugh at her misfortune. After that, I set up some rocks like pins and began running them through there basic agility drills and then turned to find Katie watching me intently.

"Hmm, that's a good way to build up there speed and stamina, but it does shit else.." She commented and I nodded along, what she said was very true.

"What would you suggest I do instead?" I asked back, hoping she could give me some tips.

"Well, first things first, it's smart to have me spar with each other."

"They do pretty regularly, usually after running these drills first," I explained and she nodded along silent and thoughtful.

"For the Krow, I'd have em life heavier and heavier things. She's a wee lass and looks to not be too strong. Build up what she can lift, and she'll be two parts strong and fast, As for the Eevee, I'd say ya best wait for her to evolve. No sense training her strength if she becomes an Espeon but also work on teaching her new tricks. Sure she can tackle and bite but teach her how to dig a hole and hide. At least that's my two cents." She explained and I nodded patiently and thanked her. Everything she said made perfect sense to me and I began instituting it at once in their training regimen. For Nyx I even made her do double duty, continuing her flying drills weaving in between trees while carrying heavier loads, which to my chagrin she frequently attempted to drop on my head.

"Goddammit," I screamed after one of Nyx's attacks hit its mark.

"Don't worry too much about it. She likes you." Katie commented trying to reassure me.

"How do you figure that? All she does it torment me." I complained.

"She's a dark type, there all like that to start, I mean bloody Rex used to be the devil back when I first got him." She said assuredly I grinned thinking back to that story she told me in the cave.

"How did ya get him to where he is now?" I asked, wanting for Arceus sake to finally tame Nyx.

"Time, patience, hard work or ya be a fuckin Artemis."

"Artemis?" I asked quizzically.

"Ah, shit wasn't supposed to say that." She said cursing herself out

"Wait," I said remembering something and quickly bringing out the book the man gave me. "Look in here it says something about Artemis, a god paired with Darkrai? How could someone be an Artemis, gods don't actually exist?" I asked nervously.

"Well, uh, I'll just say some people are special and leave it at that." She stammered out nervously and that triggered out a couple of other memories from the past.

"Shit, Falkner and someone else said I was special," I said not even thinking.

"How so?" She asked curiously.

"Not sure, they said I was different from others."

"Ya, that's what special means dumbass." She joked causing me to smirk heavily.

"No, they said they couldn't tell me, Falkner at least didn't know how. The other guy just said he wanted to leave it a surprise." I explained and Katie got really excited.

"Bloody fucking hell, you're one of us." She exclaimed in wonder.

"One of who!?" I yelled out angry that no one had told me what the fuck any of this meant.

"A child of the gods." She said.

* * *

 

_Hey guys, Another chapter down, and one I am extremely proud of. As usual, a lot of worldbuilding in this chapter but also some building up of the plot, not too mention that nasty cliffhanger. Though don't worry I am already halfway done the next chapter and it shouldn't take long at all. Also, I will now be doing a new thing, unfortunately, stolen from the fic Sacrifice and Subjugation (Seriously read it, It is unbelievable.) And posting the Party and there pokemon at the bottom of every chapter._

_Now I once again wanna thank ya all for reading, and for the recent surge in followers, this fic has gotten recently. It really means a lot and keeps me going, knowing you're all reading this. So thank you very much and until next time_

**MG**

Nyx: Murkrow, Female, Level Nineteen.

Vortumna: Eevee, Female, Level Sixteen.

**Katie**

Rex: Houndoom, Male, level Forty-Two

Hector: Growlithe, Male, Level Thirty Four

Gonzales: Sanshrew, Male: Level Twelve


	16. Child of the Gods

_Yet a new challenger would emerge_

_Half Brothers both born of Hermes_

_And sired by Poseidon and Gaia_

_And so Zeus and Boreas were born_

_And Father and Mother bestowed upon them a gift_

_A partner to share by the name of Rem_

_Who could control the three elements_

_Of fire_

_Of ice_

_Of electricity_

_And was said to be the fiercest dragon ever born_

_The brothers ambitious above all else_

_Used Rem's power_

_And overthrew there father_

_And became the next champions of Humanity_

_Yet their ambition would be their downfall._

_For they had separate beliefs_

_One in truth_

_The other in ideals_

_And so they fought nigh endlessly_

_And there fighting broke Rem in three._

_The fire went to Apollo, to help him keep the night at bay_

_And was named Reshiram_

_The lightning went to Zeus, for ideas are quick yet fleeting_

_And was named Zekrom_

_The Ice went to Boreas, For the truth was often cold_

_Yet the brothers continued to fight_

_And in doing so_

_Shattered the once great land_

_Into pieces to drift away in the currents of Poseidon's home_

_And thus the various lands_

_Of Kanto_

_Of Jotho_

_Of Hoenn_

_Of Sinnoh_

_Of Unova_

_Of Kalos_

_Of Alola_

_Of Galar_

_Were Formed_

* * *

 

"A child of what?" I asked surprised.

"A child of the gods," Katie repeated, and I stood there in confusion for a few moments before Nyx dropped another stick on me.

"Goddammit," I yelled out snapping out of my stupor and recalling Nyx so it wouldn't happen again. "And what do you mean by that? My parents certainly weren't gods." I snapped back at Katie.

"Of course they weren't" She agreed.

"Then what do you mean?" I asked yelling loudly.

"It means one of your ancestors was a god and you still carry some of that holy blood in your veins." She started to explain but I quickly cut her off.

"Gods don't exist."

"But they once did." She butted in. "Bup bup bup, let me explain." She continued when I opened my mouth. "The gods existed a long time ago, in tandem with there legendaries."

"Yes like the book says." I injected but shut up at the glare she gave me.

"As I was saying, the gods existed a long time ago, they were created to serve the land and rule the land the regular people, or children of Hera as we call them." She explained.

"We?" I asked.

"The children of the gods."

"Ah okay, continue."

"Well, unfortunately, the gods… At least the non-pokemon ones were based on humanity, and we happen to be a wee bit power crazy."

"Just a wee bit?" I asked sarcastically and we both chuckled.

"Anyways, wars were fought, alliances made and broken, all in the name of becoming the ruler of the gods, or the champion of humanity, which is where the champion title comes from. Well eventually, though it differs from story to story and I'm sure that book of yours can tell ya a lot more about it. But Arceus and Hera stripped the gods of there invulnerability and most of there power, only retaining bits and pieces of it. Not only that but they kept the weaknesses associated with there powers."

"Weaknesses, what weaknesses, I thought they were gods?" I asked confused.

"Ughh," She sighed. "Alright, so they each were given their own domain right? Well, compare that domain to a type of pokemon. Much like the ones they were given to accompany them."

"So something like Poseidon would be a water type?" I asked, starting to follow along.

"Right!" She exclaimed. "Well in return for the cut of there power, their mortality and them retaining their weaknesses, they were given the ability to mate with the children of Hera and pass down their bloodline.

"Alright and if this bloodline has been passed down this far, then why isn't everyone a child of the gods or how hasn't it diluted itself out?" I asked still very skeptical of the whole thing.

"Good question, you're smarter than ya look." She shot back and I stopped the retort forming in my mouth. "Well, a lot of people do have a little minor holy blood in them."

"Minor blood?" I asked and then quickly apologized at the look she gave me.

"Yes Minor blood. When the gods had children, they realized something. Only the eldest child would obtain the full powers and weaknesses of there parents. This is what we call major holy blood. The younger children would obtain only a little bit of the power and weaknesses. What we call minor holy blood. The only time it didn't work this way is if two minor holy blood children mated, their child would be born of major holy blood." She explained and I was still really confused.

"Alright, and what can major holy blood do, that minor holy blood cannot?"

"A major holy blood can often manipulate their own element in certain ways. Let's take Poseidon for example. A child of Poseidon is at home in the water, they can swim faster than anyone else, can hold their breath for hours, bond easier with water types and have limited control over there element. Such as being able to move, shape and manipulate water to a minor degree."

"What's a minor degree?"

"If near a source of water they could pull some of it away or manipulate it to attack someone else. For example, make a wave to pull someone under the water. However, they suffer the same weaknesses too. A static shock can cause their limbs to go numb for hours, they get sunburnt and anemia very easily when too long and have trouble training those opposite of them like Fire types."

"And Minor bloods?" I asked.

"Well, Minor blood are similar but to a much smaller degree. Whereas there faster swimmers than the average person, they can't compare to a major blood. However, They also would only feel some more pain from an electric shock than you and me. Furthermore, Minor blood dilutes after two or three generations while Major blood does not" She explained some more and I was starting to get it.

"Alright is there any other differences between them and regular people?" I asked curiously and she nodded.

"Yes well usually but not always they tend to have similar personality types. For example, a child of Poseidon would usually be calm and patient, much like the water they call home."

"And what would happen if to holy blood people had children?"

"Ah well, it depends. For most there, their child will be born of either major bloodline and gain a minor bloodline in return. The only difference being that if they have two children, both will get a major blood." She continued to lecture me and my mind was racing at all of the possibilities,

"Alright, so why isn't this widely known? This could be huge news!" I exclaimed I was certain that this could be used to make humanities future so much better if it was common knowledge.

"Why does the oddish run from the Charmander?" She questioned back.

"Because it's weak to it?" I answered back questioningly.

"Bingo! Not only are we a minority but certain types go out of there way to hunt those weak to them or put themselves into power over others."

"But why?" I asked anger seeping into my voice.

"Fear, power, fun, lots of reason really and when someone is as powerful as you and you had the advantage. Would you not take care of them?" She asked and I sat there for a moment contemplating the answer.

"No… I for one don't think it's right to subject people to that kind of power plays, nor is it right to kill them." I answered.

"Even if they're trying ta kill you?" She retorted.

"Well if that's the only answer and in self-defense. Then yes?" I answered back questioningly

"Well, some people like to take pre-emptive self-defensive actions." She said which once more sent me spiraling into questioning silence.

"So then what are you?" I asked after a few moments of careful thinking and digestion.

"What da ya think after getting to know me?" She asked back and I thought back on all our interactions. Katie was passionate, sure she was always joking but it often cast light forward that would lead me out of my own darkness and depression. Not only that but she was barely affected by the heat of the incubator and trained mostly fire types.

"I'm going to guess a child of the fire god?" I half asked, half guessed.

"Correct, though who is the fire god?" She asked back and I began to look back on all I had read before. What symbolized fire, and what pokemon would be paired with that. Well, the sun and Apollo except he was paired with Cresselia who was a psychic type… Until Reshiram paired with him.

"You're a child of Apollo," I stated this time confidently.

"Yes, minor blood." She confirmed back and I gasped in awe, there was no way this could actually be real. "I can withstand greater amounts of heat than most people, and I have a natural bond with fire types. Haven't really noticed much more than that." She explained and I once more stood in awe at the information that was running through my brain

"So what do you think I am?" I asked eagerly wanting to know.

"Well, judging by your personality. I would have pegged you for an Artemis." She casually mentioned.

"Why's that?"

"You're shy and withdrawn, slender and quick and you certainly think like an Artemis." She told me. "However by the way that Murkrow treats ya, there's no bloody way in hell you're an Artemis."

"Then what am I?" I asked again impatiently.

"I was getting to that, you're tall, well taller than most your age at least. You're slender, patient and very smart. Maybe a Persephone." She broke down. "Grass." She clarified when I was about to ask. "Probably major blood since even a Hermes could sense something about you." She continued.

"Flying type?" I inquired and she nodded.

"Good guess." She praised me and I blushed red.

"Why wouldn't an uh… Hermes know?" I queried once more.

"Most types, won't know. Well, they might sense ya have major blood in ya, but that's about as much as they'll know." She clarified.

"Is that why people keep mentioning to go to Morty?" I asked

"Morty, what does he train?" Katie returned.

"He's the ghost trainer," I answered.

"A Hades, right. Yeah, Hades is one of three that can tell you what you are."

"What are the other two?"

"Well, technically it's four. "She said glaring at me when I was about to ask another question. "There's the trio and lady Hestia." She taught me.

"What's the trio?"

"Children of Athena, Delphi, and Morpheus."

"Who?" I injected.

"You're not at that part? It's my favorite part of the book." She shot back in shock.

"You've read the book?" I asked excitedly.

"Of course I've read the book. Everyone's read the book."

"I haven't."

"That's not the point!" She yelled in frustration and I threw my hands up in pacification.

"Sorry about that, anyway… All ya need to fuckin know is there the psychic types and they like Children of Hades can essentially read what type you are." She angrily continued. "Hades do it by reading your soul, and the trio does it by reading your mind."

"And Hestia?"

"Lady Hestia." She corrected me.

"Lady Hestia?"

"They need to train to be able to do it, but they learn, by reading people." She continued.

"Like there minds?"

"No like there emotions, there feelings and beliefs. Most of Lady Hestia's descendants can naturally read through peoples lies, and their feelings and just will know. Through honing that they can learn how to read who one's ancestor was." She illustrated for me.

"Why do you refer to Hestia so highly?"

"Lady Hestia." She again corrected.

"Why do you refer to Lady Hestia so highly?" I continued annoyed.

"Well again, you're gonna have to keep reading that book for the full story. However, the gist of it is Lady Hestia was our one true savior after Chronos joined the war." She added in when I questioned and once more everything went silent.

"Alright, I'm going to have to think about all of this." I finally said after a few minutes of silence.

"Of course that's natural but don't take too long. It looks like ya Eevee is dying." She said and I quickly turned to Vortumna who was still weaving between rocks, albeit barely walking instead of running.

"Shit!" I exclaimed and ran over to her, I had completely forgotten to order her to stop running while I was mentally entangled with the conversation. "Sorry about that girl," I said stopping her and stroking her fur lovingly and telling her what a good girl she was. After a few minutes, her labored breathing slowed down to a comfortable pace and she fell asleep in my lap, me smiling down at her.

"Well, you have a lot to take in. I'll meet ya at the center alright?" Katie said and I nodded, now completely lost in thought about what I had just gotten myself into.

* * *

 

_Hey, everyone, I told you I was close to being done this chapter. Now I know it was basically just Exposition the chapter, but I feel we needed that. Not only that but this has been my most anticipated to write yet. Sure things were hinted at, the story, the lore, the ideas and how she was special. However, finally revealing it all… Well at least most of it has again been my most anticipated part of the story yet and I am so unbelievably excited to share it with you all. Now I must give credit where credit is due. This entire thing was heavily inspired by fics, like Renaerys Triumvirate, Metal Dargon's Sacrifice, and Subjugation and of course, Crucix's Regret and I'm not sure I'd ever come up with it, without them. However, I am again honored and happy to say that at the very least I'll be putting my own grand spin on it, which you can already see I have._

_While It was my most anticipated chapter to write yet, It is my third most anticipated moment to revel, after the MG's Name and of course the ending, but we'll get there when we get there._

_As for you all, well thanks again to the brand new followers and for the kudos. Cheers you all and if ya wanna help support the fic, check out Patreon.com/Pious_Mage_ _and until next time :)_


End file.
